FINAL:

Jahan Amrin

Professor Aisha Sidibe

FIQWS 10103 World History and Culture

28th September 2018

LGBT in Latin America

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) issues regarding sexual orientation have always been controversial in Latin America. Homosexuality, or anything related to the modification of one’s gender, is seen as a crime or a misdeed because religious and traditional views play a crucial role in the social environment in Latin American countries. Though LGBT pride and protest movements have steadily encouraged the making of slight improvements in government, societal feelings about sexual orientation is still one of the main controversies that needs to be resolved.

The LGBT community faces plentiful insolent crises from their fellow residents’ strong resistance, creating a difficult and unpleasant position for an LGBT person to be in. People who fall into the LGBT categories often face discrimination, abandonment and even violence based on their sexual identification. Being the victim of such violent exertion, has led to higher murder rates in many Latin American countries. “Each year it gets worse: in 2017,  four-hundred and forty-five LGBTQ Brazilians were slain, up thirty percent from 2016.” Countries such as Brazil has one of the highest murder rates compared to other nations, which is precisely because of their attitude on such a topic. So what can the government do to withstand these atrocious incidents?

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights wanted administration involvement to “take strict action against homophobia” and the administration did get involved as requested. However, their engagement didn’t really improve the circumstances mostly because their efforts were not adequate to control or regulate the issues. In other words, they did not take it seriously. This clarifies a lot about the administration on how they manipulate certain issues. But if administration does not take proper action regarding such conflicts, this can verify the reasons of resemblant rates of murder cases. But why are their few “unfriendly LGBT countries” so against these moderate sanctions? The reason, very transparent that those few countries did not have any interest in changing their conduct because of the public negativity towards such a topic that were scattered pretty much everywhere.

However, in other Latin American countries, improvements have been made. In Chile and Argentina, the government has adapted conditions for the LGBT community by passing certain laws. For example, Chile’s Supreme Court passed laws that allow same sex marriage. In addition, they also passed laws that allow one to legally change their name, gender, and sexual preference, which is important for identification for “basic public services, including social security, public safety, and justice.” These courts allowed this because their fundamental principles of belief do not include religious perspectives regarding one’s sexual orientation and preference. It is considered to be a right that cannot be violated under any circumstances. Even so, if the alteration of certain identification is possible, in these more progressive Latin American countries, it requires “ a complex, costly and time-consuming process involving court appearances (as in Peru), psychological evaluation (in Bolivia), or in the case of Uruguay, approval by an inter-disciplinary committee.” This contradicts the benefits of the new laws the government has passed in the favor of the LGBT people.

LGBT issues reflecting sexual orientation is still a controversy in Latin American countries because of the unwillingness of citizens to accept the new circumstances presented by the government. The new enactments are generally neglected by the close-minded people of Latin America mostly because of their ancestors cultural views that has have passed on. Furthermore, although it  seems as if the government has done much to enhance the situation of an LGBT citizen by providing constitutional rights, it has not been enough to protect them from the increasing murder rates. Nevertheless, it is a start in the process to the acceptance a new source of diversity.

 

References:

Why Latin American Courts favor gay rights by Omar G. Encarnacion – The New York Times

Latin America could lead the way for LGBT rights in 2018 by Daniel Berezowsky Ramirez – Human Rights Watch

A Brief History of the LGBTQ movement in Latin America