Anxiety among the LGBTQ+ area is sparked by the death of Mexico’s first non-binary judge.

A well-known activist and Mexico’s second boldly non-binary determine were both found dead in a suspected murder that sparked” an outpouring of grief” among the LGBTQ+ community of the nation.

39-year-old Jess Ociel Baena was discovered at home on Monday,” killed with a knife blade,” according to Reuters. Dorian Nieves Herrera, a man identified by local press as Baena’s mate, was also discovered lifeless. Many cities have held candlelit vigils and protests where “many shed tears and listeners lashed out at the accusations and acts of violence that remain a common phenomenon for some gay, trans, and non-binary Mexican.”

According to the government, Herrera, 37, appeared to have killed Baena before committing suicide. However, according to The New York Times ( NYT), LGBTQ+ leaders in the nation are “questioning whether such a quick assessment fits what they claim to be an example by authorities of effectively dismissing grisly killings involving LGBTQ people as crimes of passion.”

Calling to “determine whether the magistrate had been targeted for promoting the right of nonbinary folks” have been made in response to Baena’s dying.

Who was Ociel Baena in Jes?

According to the NYT, Baena, a “pioneering intersex figure,” made history in 2022 when they joined the Mexican judicial system as the country’s first explicitly nonbenary part. According to Al Jazeera, their visit “was viewed as a miracle instant for LGBTQ individuals” in the nation.

Baena was one of the first Mexicans to get a non-binary card this year, and their birth certificate in their home state of Coahuila also stated that they were not linear. ” Take care of it!” In May, they made a tweet on Twitter.

They were able to be formally referred to as the gender-neutral “le magistrade” for sheriff, as opposed to “el magistrado” or “la magistratrada,” just a few days before they passed away.

According to The Guardian, Baena had “regularly post photos and videos of themselves in dresses, heels, and carrying a rainbow lover in court offices.” They claimed that they had frequently been threatened with death.

What took place?

According to Jesus Figueroa, the state attorney of Aguascalientes, Baena and their partner’s cleaner discovered their body. Twenty cuts from a grooming razor had been inflicted on Baena, including one to the throat that was probably fatal. Afterwards, The Associated Press reported that Herrera had “tested good for methamphetamines,” according to the prosecutor’s office.

However, Reuters reports that a large portion of Baena’s friends and family have disputed the official theory. At the death, next to the two coffins decorated with rainbow colors, their father, Juan Baena, remarked,” It’s not true.”

According to Letra S., director of the LGBTQ+ rights organization, Alejandro Brito, Baena’s death was scare or even cause violence against another LGBT+ people. This is what may happen to you if you reveal your identities, the text is an harassment.

What’s it like for LGBTQ+ people in Mexico?

In the 2020 issue of the Americas Monthly book, Genaro Lozano, a political science professor at Mexico City’s Iberoamerican University, wrote that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador “has lengthy had an trying connection with Mexicans ‘ Gay community.” However, despite his efforts to “keep those rights at arms ‘ length,” his term in office since 2018 “has coincided with unprecedented progress for LGBT right” in Mexico.

As of October 2022, all 32 of Mexico’s states recognized same-sex unions, and 18 states allowed people to legally change their gender and title, making Mexico a unique country in Central America. Additionally, there is now much easier accessibility to antiviral medications for treating HIV. However, according to Lozano, violence related to the assault on the drug trade “affects the LGBTQ+ community in unique and frequently buried ways.”

According to Letra S., more than half of the subjects were transgender women. In 2019, only, 117 LGBTQ+ people were killed in Mexico, up nearly a third on 2018 and the highest number since 2015. According to information gathered by Transgender Europe, Mexico had the second-highest range of transgenus murders in the world after Brazil in 2021.

According to non-binary advocate Alex Orué, any attack on LGBTQ+ numbers” shakes people and instills fear,” but Baena’s passing was “even more painful.”

What does the rest of us anticipate if someone with that degree of visibility, that common position as a magistrate, and the state’s protection because they were living under threat experiences this?