An article published ten days ago in a Bolivian newspaper indicating military leaders had reached an agreement in principle to include gays in the Bolivian military must have ruffled some feathers higher up because today the nation's Defense Minister publicly rejected those speculations.
The rumors began when Bolivia's Minister of Decolonization Félix Cárdenas spoke to El Deber on December 16th and said an agreement on allowing gays and lesbians in the military had been in the works since 2010 and that a number of higher military officials had committed, in principle, to begin those efforts during a meeting he organized between military leaders and members of the general population.
"No limits should be placed on any person that wishes to join the military," Cárdenas said indicating that the Bolivian legislature should follow up on the agreement and work on instituting these changes.
Today it is a different story with Página 7 reporting the nation's Defense Minister Rubén Saavedra is having none of it.
"The Political Constitution of the Sate indicates that only males can participate in mandatory military service and only males and females can join military institutes and schools, there is no other option" Saavedra said.
"Take it for certain, you have to be male or female," he added.
In other words gays and lesbians are neither female or male and this they cannot serve in the military. LOL.
When reached by Página 7 some of the higher military leaders also denied ever signing the previously reported agreement.
The only point on which the Defense Minister and the Minister of Decolonization agree is that if gays and lesbians ever allowed to serve in the military it will have to happen through a legislative measure.
In the United States, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has led efforts to push the government to adopt changes to the national census in ways that better reflect the nation's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities through its "Queer the Census" project.
A U.S. House of Representatives panel took up the issue back in March but it still seems like an uphill battle ("House panel hears about adding LGBT to census survey", The Bay Area Reporter, March 15, 2012). The idea is that with better data about who we are as a community, government will be able to provide better services.
It's a battle being fought in other parts of the American continent as well. This might not be a comprehensive listing but it's a sample of similar efforts taking place throughout Latin America.
Argentina: Passage of a federal marriage equality law in Argentina in 2010 forced the National Census to incorporate questions about same-sex partnership households.
Perhaps among the most progressive of census agencies in the world,
Argentina also allows transgender individuals to register with their
current gender and name even if it's not reflected in their birth
certificates or government ID's.
Colombia:
Although it has yet to adopt progressive LGBT policies when it comes to
the national census, in 2011 the Colombian government announced it would
survey prisoners as to whether they identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex.
Some LGBT advocates raised alarms about the potential for violence
should a person's sexual identity be exposed in a general prison setting
but the National Penitentiary and Jail Institute insisted the measure
would help them to safeguard the safety of every LGBTI person in the
system.
Venezuela: In 2010, the Venezuelan National Statistics Institute eliminated an
"error" message that appeared whenever a census participant tried to
register having a same-sex partner at the request of LGBT-rights organization Unión Afirmativa. It's one of the few positive developments when it comes to LGBT rights under the Hugo Chávez mandate but, officially, same-sex couples in Venezuela can register their partnership in the national census surveys.
Which brings us to Chile.
The Homosexual Liberation Movement (MOVILH) has worked closely with the current center-right Chilean government of Sebastian Piñera to improve the way the Chilean census reflects the reality of the LGBT community. Although not as progressive as the census changes in Bolivia and Argentina, in 2011 the Chilean government announced that it would survey the number of same-sex partnerships in the country.
Today, the MOVILH launched a national campaign urging same-sex couples to register as such in the 2012 census under the theme of "Acknowledge the other half of your orange" ("Tu media naranja" or "Your half orange" is a common term of endearment used in Latin America to refer to one's partner).
The campaign includes a stand alone interactive site and an amazing Census 2012 video which I have taken the liberty of translating.
The Government of Bolivia announced this morning that it had sent a letter to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual an Transgender Federation of Spain (FALGBT) in which they wished to "ratify" the respect towards sexual liberty as established in the Bolivian constitution ("Government of Evo Morales: We respect gays" RPP/EFE, April 26, 2010).
The comments, which drew gasps of surprise and laughter from those gathered for the conference in the city of Tiquipaya, were first picked up by the Spain-based EFE news agency and then quickly made the international rounds through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.
For the most part, supporters of Morales on the left spent the week pointing out that he never mentioned the word "gay" or "homosexual" in his statement without quite being able to explain what he meant by the "female hormones" causing "deviance" in men. Some also claimed that the worldwide attention that the comments drew were a ploy by capitalist media in developed nations to overshadow what was supposed to be a shining moment for Bolivia and Morales: An environmental conference that drew thousands of people throughout the world to challenge inaction on environmental issues by the world powers.
In the meantime, those on the right, particularly in Spain, grabbed on to the news to paint the left as silent when it came to standing up to homophobic left-wing figures. That wasn't quite correct either. Pedro Zerolo, the leading gay figure in Spain's Socialist Worker's Party was among a number of LGBT leaders who went to the Bolivian Embassy in Madrid and handed them a letter demanding an apology from Morales.
In fact, Iván Canelas, the presidential spokesperson who announced the letter this morning, said that it had been sent as a response to Zerolo's "personal protest" [UPDATE: As of 5:30PM EST, US time, Pedro Zerolo had yet to receive the letter; on his Twitter account he writes "Protests give results. It seems that the president, Evo Morales, has sent us a message in which he ratifies' his respect to sexual identity...", I asked him if he had received the letter and he said they had not as of now].
The full text of the letter was apparently not released but Canelas said that the message in the statement was that Morales "under no circumstance" was referring to homosexuality in a speech that specifically was addressing genetically modified foods.
"It has never crossed the President's mind, from any point of view, to attack the rights of homosexuals," said the spokesperson, adding that the Bolivian President was the one who pushed the new Bolivian Constitution and language which prohibits and bans any kind of discrimination based on gender, skin color, age or sexual orientation (see my past coverage: "New Bolivian constitution bans discrimination based on sexual orientation", Feb. 7, 2009).
As for me, I actually do not think Evo Morales is a homophobe, but I do think what he said was homophobic. His silence on what he meant by his words to this day is shameful (the letter sent this morning was sent by the government and apparently not by Morales himself or carrying his signature).
It also comes a full week after the statements were made and only after media such as the Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine and The Guardian had picked up on the bru-ha-ha.
Yes, those are capitalist instruments for world domination, as I am sure many will point out. But they all were pretty late to the game and by then Morales, who was probably hoping to be nominated for a Nobel prize as a result of the environmental conference, had -instead- become the laughing stock of the world (and, guess what, his party members went ahead and nominated him anyway after the conference was over!).
In this case, he has nothing but himself to blame.
By the way, 38 different LGBT organizations which conform The TLGB Collective of Bolivia also sent a letter expressing their disappointment at their president's statements and the shock they feel that the words came from a president who they thought was friendly to their cause (Spanish-language letter below).
President Morales might consider responding to the LGBT citizens of his own country. One suggestion: Do it in your own words. Excelentísimo+Presidente
¡Ay dios mio! Bolivian president Evo Morales is warning men to stay away from eating poultry raised in chicken farms. The reason? Morales claims that chicken raised in non-organic farms are often injected with female hormones which, he said, might turn the men who consumed them gay.
The AP simply says that Morales claimed that men who ate the chickens might "have problems being men" but, as captured by EFE in the original language, Morales actually said "El pollo que comemos está cargado de hormonas femeninas. Por eso, cuando los hombres comen esos pollos, tienen desviaciones en su ser como hombres"
My translation: "The chicken we eat is full of femenine hormones. That's why, when men eat those chickens, they have deviations in their beings as men" - and we all know what people mean when they say you have deviated from being a man.
And he didn't stop there. According to EFE, Morales also claimed that chicken and beef treated with hormones was also the cause for the premature development of breasts in some girls; caused premature hair-loss in men (he said that baldness had reached illness proportions in Europe and pointed at his own mane of hair as proof that locals who avoided such foods also kept their hair); and riled against Coca Cola saying that plumbers who ran out of drain opening liquids usually turned to Coca Cola as an alternative.
"Imagine the chemicals in Coca Cola," he said.
And, to finish it all off, he also said that Western medicines might cure a problem but create two new ones. OMG. My head hurts now. I better get an aspirin or two.
An unpublished comment from an anonymous reader dated February 4th asks "Why no story on Bolivian voters voting last week for a constitution that outlaws discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation?"
Short answer: Because I wanted to include one specific piece of information and kept looking for it with no luck... until today!
Here are the basics: Following similar efforts by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, Bolivian President Evo Morales won a huge political victory on January 25th when 61 percent of Bolivian voters voted in favor of adopting a new constitution.
The constitution, which goes into effect today, "promises more power for the poor, Indian majority; recognizes communal justice; grants some regional autonomy; and declares coca a part of the nation's heritage", according to an article posted today by the Associated Press.
It also allows Morales, the first Bolivian president of indigenous background, to run for a second term and to further establish a socialist vision for the country, even as it also leaves deeper divisions between those who backed the changes and does who did not.
LGBT community protected from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity: So, as the reader noted, there was more to the new constitution than the AP reports. Here is what it says under Article 14.II:
In the title 'Fundamental Rights and Guarantees': The State prohibits and punishes all form of discrimination founded on the basis of sex, skin color, gender, age, sexual orientation and gender identity, origin, culture, nationality, citizenship, language, religious beliefs, ideology, political or philosophical affiliation,
Constitution defines marriage as that between a man and a woman: According to some reports, earlier versions of the constitution paved a way for the recognition of civil unions between same-sex partners. Instead, that language was dropped and replaced with Article 63 (an attempt to appease religious leaders who had complained):
I. Marriage between a woman and a man is constituted by legal ties and is based on equal rights and responsibilities between spouses; II. Free or common-law unions that meet conditions of stability and singularity, and be maintained between a woman and a man without legal impediment, will produce the same rights as a civil union, not only in the personal and patrimonial relationships between co-inhabitants, but also with respect to sons and daughters who are adopted or born from those partnerships.
To put it mildly, this did not appease religious leaders and, particularly, those on the right. Days before the vote, right wing religious leaders launched a predictable but nevertheless incredibly ugly attack on the proposed constitution.
The attack ad: I had read that the religious right had launched an incredibly offensive television ad as a last-ditch attempt to defeat the constitutional changes. It told believers that the new constitution would "throw God out of Bolivia" and that a vote against it would be a vote in favor of God. I searched for it on YouTube and elsewhere in vain but no luck... Until today! I've uploaded it on YouTube and posted it above.
I am struck by the imagery: A still from Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" (which I have also seen widely used by local NYC Latino Evangelical leaders to whip-up resentment against gays and lesbians); Evo Morales shown in a traditional Indian costume which probably serves to inflame racist sentiments against indigenous cultures; what appears to be an image of a US-based couple kissing, which of course perpetuates the idea that homosexuality is being imported from elsewhere; an image of an aborted fetus which is a staple of those used by the religious-right in the United States; and, of course, an image of children holding the Cuban flag to tie it all up to Communism.
The AFP says that the ad was so offensive that it was banned by the country's independent electorate tribunal but that television stations who opposed approval of the constitution continued to run it until election date.
If you have read this blog in the past, you might be surprised that I am backing the constitutional changes in Bolivia. Then again, neither Morales not Ecuador's Correa are the egotistical maniacal figure represented by Venezuela's truly despicable Chavez (even as they follow his every step).
This is why socialism is capturing the hearts and minds of folk in Latin America (and why Chavez is so successfully in his quest to remain in power indefinitely): The political alternative is even worse! They champion discrimination against minorities, the worst sort of right-wing ideals, policies that discriminate against indigenous communities and, of course, anti-choice and anti-gay sentiments left and right. Heck! They are decrying that the additional anti-discrimination protections covering indigenous communities are an infringement on their freedoms! Their true fear? The new constitution establishes a separation of church and state for the first time ever in Bolivia which means that they have lost a certain grasp on the legislature.
I mean, considering what they are willing to do in the ad above and if you had a similar choice, wouldn't you back Evo as well?
As I've said in the past, if you come to this blog looking for some of the latest info on LGBT rights in Latin America and find that I haven't posted in a while or don't have specific information about something you are looking for, you can always head over to GayNewsWatch and check out the Latin America section.
Here's s sampling of stuff that has happened recently that I haven't had the time to blog about and that GayNewsWatch has featured:
And that's just a few of the stories you'll find there. Of note is the fact that GayNewsWatch offers much more coverage of Brazil than I do, in part because most stories from Brazil are in Portuguese and I am not fluent in the language and in part because Chris Crain (pictured) - the editor of GayNewsWatch - knows Portuguese and lived in the country for a couple of years.
Check out that Bolivia story: Crain even beat me at spotting that article which not only mentions that the draft of a new Bolivian constitution bans discrimination based on sexual orientation (if passed, Bolivia would join Ecuador as the 2nd nation in Latin America to do so) but also reveals that it would block marriage rights for same-sex couples, which would make it the first country in the world to do so (Rex takes notice of the first part in this week's edition of his world news column).
It's not a done deal. As President Chavez of Venezuela found out (or Presdent Bush on his constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage for that matter) constitutional changes are not always easily approved. Lets hope that the anti-gay language is eliminated down the line.
Just before I left for Colombia I sat down with Diego Senior, the NYC correspondent for Colombia's Caracol radio, to discuss political asylum due to fear of persecution based on sexual orientation. In the interview I spoke of several cases in which I have been involved (in assessing a case, working with legal service providers and lawyers to provide information on specific countries or in translating materials or at the asylum hearing).
A few things made it into the interview including a warning to those who might think that it is easy to be granted political asylum in this country particularly if the person has little if any documentation of persecution or if they lie about past experiences (the interview has since been picked by the Spanish-language news agency EFE which led to a reporter tracking me down in Bogota for an article that appears in this week's Cambio).
This comes to mind after reading a post today on Arthur Leonard's blog on a gay man from Peru who lived in Bolivia as an adult and then moved to the United States where he finally requested political asylum claiming he feared to be sent back.
The case reads like a primer on what not to do when applying for asylum:
1. There is a one-year window from his/her arrival in which a person can solicit political asylum in the United States (unless the person can prove special circumstances that might have kept him from applying during that first year). The man entered the United States in 2001 but waited until 2003 to submit the asylum application.
2. The man did not provide evidence for any of the alleged discrimination either while living in Peru or Bolivia and provided conflicting testimony about one of the incidents. Sometimes cases are won without specific evidence but any evidence that is submitted obviously strengthens a case and if the case is weak from the beginning any contradictions in the testimony can be damaging.
3. Even if true, the courts noted, the claims of discrimination presented did not rise to a level where they proved that the man would be tortured or persecuted if sent back home. No surprise, then, that an Immigration Judge first threw out the asylum claim based on the man's failure to apply within a year of entering the country and that, on appeal and seeking "withholding of removal," the Board of Immigration Appeals and 11th Circuit Court of Appeals both rejected his appeal and, thus, his right to stay in the United States.
I just wish more people who think that applying for political asylum is easy would read the outcome of cases like these.
July 1, 2007: In Bogota, Colombia, the gay community mourned the death of 11 deputies that had been held in captivity by the FARC guerrilla for more than five years. The black banners and shirts also were meant to show the community's anger at the Senators that used a legislative procedure to derail a same-sex partnership bill at the last possible minute back in June (image from El Tiempo)
You might have seen coverage of pride marches in Spain and Brazil elsewhere so we'll skip those (just Google both and see what comes up or, better yet, browse GayNewsWatch.com for related stories).
We have already written about last week's rally in the Dominican Republic. Here is a look at other pride marches and events in Latin America that took place over the weekend that might have received less attention in these latitudes.
Cochabamba, Bolivia: Santa Cruz and the capital city of La Paz might have observed gay pride events in previous years but this year it was the Andean city of Cochabamba to launch their first pride event ever (abuove-right press conference image taken from Los Tiempos).
On Sunday, Los Tiempos reported that the previous day's gathering at the city's main plaza was attended by thousands of individuals who "danced with transsexuals, gays and lesbians."
"I didn't know Miss Cochabamba was so tall!" said an older woman as she posed for a photo with the Queen of the Gays, stated the reporter.
The paper took note of the visible trans presence and the lack of confrontations or disruptions that have marred pride events in other Bolivian cities.
Guayaquil, Ecuador.El Comercio reports that 300 people showed up for an afternoon of artistic shows at an outdoor plaza on Thursday, June 28th. The event, which began last year, was organized by the Friends for Life Foundation under the theme of "The problem is not homosexuality... The problem is homophobia." The Foundation has posted images of the event over on their blog here and here. Panama City, Panama. The Association of New Men and Women of Panama (AHMN), observed pride by releasing their first ever "Top Ten Most Homophobic Panamanians" list which included television personalities, religious leaders and politicians.
At least one of the nominees expressed surprise at being nominated: Critica Libre columnist Julio Cesar Caicedo told the AFP "I am not a homophobe."
San Salvador, El Salvador. EFE reports that hundreds of people, including representatives from half a dozen HIV prevention and gay rights organizations participated in a gay pride march through the streets of San Salvador. Under the theme of "Diversity in Action" well-known gay-right activist William Hernandez stated that there was a lack of funding and institutionalized support for anti-homophobia trainings or campaigns or for HIV prevention campaigns specifically targeting the gay community.
Santiago de Chile, Chile. Last week the Chilean arm of Amnesty International said that two leading gay rights organizations, MUMS and MOVILH, had received anonymous threatening messages through the internet in advance of Sunday's pride fair. In June MOVILH's website had also been hacked twice also by unknown put self-proclaimed skinheads who posted offensive messages and images instead of the usual content.
Fortunately MOVILH's portal is back in MOVILH's hands and they report no incidents of violence at Sunday's cultural fair which celebrated both LGBT pride as well as the organization's 16th anniversary. They also have a photo gallery of the day's proceedings here (if people seem a bit bundled, keep in mind that it's currently winter down in Chile).
La Nacion had perviously reported that, parallel to the day's events there would also be a second annual "kiss-a-thon" organized by MUMS in a show of support for anti-discrimination legislation.
Bogota, Colombia. Organizers of Bogota's pride march also denounced internet-based threats from anonymous self-described "skinheads" on the eve of Sunday's event. Fortunately, the march drew an estimated 10,000 participants despite cold rainy weather and there were no reports of any disruptions or clashes although a group of pro-gay skinheads did participate.
Organizers of the event, led by the Colombian LGBT rights advocacy organization Colombia Diversa, had planned to wear black shirts in protest of last month's 12th hour defeat of a landmark bill that would have given same-sex couples in Colombia some partnership rights. But on Sunday the black banners and shirts also served as a powerful symbol that the LGBT community in Colombia stood together with the rest of the country in mourning the death of 11 councilmembers who had been held in captivity for five years by the FARC guerilla organization (the FARC say that the kidnapped men died in a confrontation with armed forces while the Colombian government has categorically denied any rescue mission or military activity against the FARC in the area).
In addition to those visible expressions of sadness, Fabian David, a young man who marched along with his boyfriend, noticed another key difference from marches in years past: "The majority of are not wearing masks," he told El Tiempo, "This is because there is a sense of increased comfortability with the issue."
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