Editor’s note: International News Editor Michael K. Lavers was on assignment in Mexico City from July 17-23.
MEXICO CITY — More than 400 people from around the world attended an LGBTQ and intersex rights conference that took place last week in Mexico City.
Jessica Stern, the special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights, and Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the independent U.N. expert on LGBTQ and intersex issues, are among those who spoke at the LGBTI Political Leaders from the Americas and the Caribbean Conference that the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute co-sponsored. Maryland state Del. Gabriel Acevero (D-Montgomery County), Massachusetts state Rep. Jack Lewis, Brazilian Congresswomen Erika Hilton and Duda Salabert, Mexican Congresswoman Salma Luévano, Venezuelan National Assemblywoman Tamara Adrián, former Colombian Congressman Mauricio Toro, former Peruvian Congressman Alberto de Belaunde, Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality Executive Director Kenita Placide and Fundación Triángulo (Spain) President José María Núñez Blanco are among those who also participated.
Victory Institute spokesperson Pita Juárez noted to the Washington Blade the 438 people who attended the conference came from the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Afghanistan, China, Panama, Paraguay, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras.
The following groups from across the region co-organized the conference along with the Victory Institute:
- Yaaj México
- Caribe Afirmativo (Colombia)
- Diversidad Dominicana (Dominican Republic)
- Somos CDC (Honduras)
- Promsex (Peru)
- VoteLGBT+ (Brazil)
Stern in her speech at the conference on July 20 noted the U.S. supported the conference and helped organizers cover some attendees’ transportation costs.
‘Fight for global equality is more important than ever’
The conference took place against the backdrop of the passage of anti-LGBTQ laws in several U.S. states and in countries around the world and persistent violence based on gender identity and sexual orientation throughout Latin America.
Cubans last September approved a new family code that extended marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples. (Brenda Díaz, a transgender woman with HIV who participated in an anti-government protest in the country’s Artemisa province on July 11, 2021, is serving a 14-year prison sentence.) Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda over the last year have decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations.
“Our fight for global equality is more important than ever,” said Victory Institute President Annise Parker on July 20 when she opened the conference. “We have always known that we have had much farther to go, but we are experiencing a backlash across the globe.”
“In the United States a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced and passed last year,” she noted. “LGBTQ+ lawmakers like (Oklahoma state Rep.) Mauree Turner and (Montana state Rep.) Zooey Zephyr were censured and expelled from their offices in the United States, but hate has no borders.”
Parker in her speech said “efforts to discriminate against trans people are increasing” in the U.K. and “we’ve seen an uptick in identity-based harassment” in Latin America. Parker also noted Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in May signed his country’s Anti-Homosexuality that contains a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality.”
“This is a moment of alarm; it is also a rallying cry,” said Parker. “The best way to push back is to put LGBTQI+ people into those halls and offices to stand up and speak for us. They’re our anecdotes to hate.”
Parker in her speech also noted LGBTQ and intersex rights advances in the Americas over the last year. They include the election of Hilton and Dudabert, who are both trans, to the Brazilian Congress last October, the five LGBTQ people and a nonbinary person who won their respective races for the Colombian House of Representatives in May 2022 and the Mexican Senate’s vote to ban so-called conversion therapy in the country.
“We can make progress,” said Parker.
