Brazil Inaugurates A Female President

Since 1990, five women in Central and South American nations have become heads of state.   Brazil, the largest and most populous nation on the South American continent joined that hemispheric trend by electing its first female president in Dilma Rousseff back in November.

She was a minister and later the chief of staff to outgoing two term president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and now has the task of succeeding one of the more popular presidents in Brazilian history.    He was Brazil's first president who had come from a working class background and left office with an 87% approval rating thanks to his social and wealth redistribution policies that helped pull 20 million people out of poverty.

The 63 year old Rousseff campaigned on continuing the groundbreaking reforms of President Lula and fixing the education, health care and transportation infrastructure.   The infrastructure issues take on even more significance with Brazil hosting the looming on the horizon 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

"I am going to consolidate the transformative work done by President Lula," she said during her 40 minute inaugural address. "He changed the way the government is run and led the people to trust in themselves."

And it's going to be interesting to watch and see how President Rousseff handles the daunting task of succeeding her political mentor as well.

Brazil Creates National LGBT Council

Brazil already provides free SRS for its trans citizens, so it wasn't surprising to hear that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Human Rights Secretary Paulo Vannuchi signed a December 9 decree creating the National LGBT Council.

The newly created National LGBT Council will "formulate and propose guidelines for government actions, at the national level, aimed at combating discrimination and promoting and defending the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transvestites and transsexuals." 

The National LGBT Council is comprised of employees of 15 governmental organizations and representatives of 15 non governmental organizations and was an outgrowth of the deliberations following the June 2008 National LGBT Conference.   A National Plan To Promote LGBT Citizenship and Human Rights was also compiled with 166 recommendations made to implement the national plan to improve the lives of GLBT Brazilians

The Brazilian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Association  (ABGLT)  welcomed the news of the council's formation.

"The creation of the council is something ABGLT has been pressuring for and is a victory for civil society and the Lula government," said Toni Reis, president of the otrganization. "It shows respect for the deliberations of the 1st National LGBT Conference, held in June 2008, and will be a means of ensuring social watch over the implementation of the 166 actions contained in the National Plan to Promote LGBT Citizenship and Human Rights."

Glad to hear that at least one nation on the planet is motivated to protect the human rights of its GLBT citizens.    

Guyanese Transpeople File Challenge To Anti-Crossdressing Law

During a February 6-10, 2009  police crackdown in Guyana four transwomen were arrested for violating the British colonial era anti-crossdressing statute that for now is still in effect in that nation .

In addition to being stripped, disrespected, denied phone calls, medical attention, detained over a weekend, and fined $7,500 under §153(1)(xlvii) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act, Chapter 8.02, they were subjected to a transphobic lecture by Guyanese Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson.

Robertson ridiculed them from the bench, lectured that they were men, not women, admonished that they were confused, and instructed to go to church and give their lives to Jesus Christ.

The transwomen struck back February 20, 2010 which happened to be the second annual observance of the World Day of Social Justice by filing a challenge to the South American nation's British colonial era law. 

Veronica Cenac, a St. Lucian attorney who serves as the human rights focal point on the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition board of governors, lauded the Guyana based Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD)  for spearheading the case.

“For way too long, we have allowed abuses against the most affected populations to go unchallenged,” she said, quoting the closing words of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's World Day of Social Justice message: “Lack of social justice anywhere is an affront to us all.”

It's been almost as year since this challenge was filed, and we'll see how this plays out because like many areas bordering the Caribbean, the faith based homophobia and transphobia in Guyana, as evidenced  by Justice Robertson's comments  is entrenched.

Argentinian GL Peeps Vow To Help Trans People Get Expanded Rights

Argentina's Gay Pride parade was held yesterday in Buenos Aires and they had much to celebrate as the first country in Latin America to legalize same gender marriage despite determined Roman Catholic Church opposition to it.  .

Since President Cristina Fernandez signed the law into effect on July 21, over 500 same gender couples have jumped the broom.   They have also witnessed  a major spike in gay tourists wishing to visit the South American nation
.

In the wake of that success and in conjunction with the pride parade theme of 'Let's Go For More', the GL community is vowing to help the Argentine trans community pass a gender identity law that makes it easier for transpeople to change their gender on birth certificates and identity cards.

In many cases Argentine transpeople have had to fight tooth and nail just to do so, and because of those difficulties with mismatched identification,  it has caused problems for Argentine transpeople when they do interact with government     Uruguay passed their gender ID law in 2009, but a similar one for transpeople in Argentina has languished in the Argentine senate since 2007.

There is hope since the same gender marriage issue passed, that there will finally be movement on the stalled gender ID legislation. "The gay marriage law helped open the doors to discuss LGBT issues in Argentina," said Socialist Deputy Roy Cortina. "And that's going to be beneficial for the gender identity law."

We'll be watching to see if the Argentinian GL community keeps their promise to help their trans brothers and sisters pass this legislation, or do what their GL brothers and sisters did in the States and Canada to trans people and ignore them 

Shelcy Sanchez-First Colombian Trans Candidate

Back on January 26 Shelcy Sanchez launched a historic campaign for the Colombian Congress.  She made history by becoming the first trans person in the country to run for political office.

Sanchez transitioned at age 16 and is vocal in her support of gay and transgender rights in Colombia.  She registered her candidacy for the Colombian House of Representatives in her home department of Valle del Cauca.

"My aspiration is born from a conviction and a necessity: to show that we can achieve a destiny away from living in the closet and seeing ourselves forced into prostitution. However, those that are obliged to work in the sex industry should enjoy dignified working conditions ... with access to social security and the healthcare system," said Sanchez.

Sanchez  produces the country's only GLBT radio station and was vice president to the Fundacion Transmujer, which supports the rights of trans Colombians.

Her political candidacy reportedly had the support of over 25,000 members of the Colombian GLBT community.   Sanchez did have her detractors and faced death threats from people who didn't want to see her make history.

If she was successful, she would become the third transperson worldwide elected to their national legislative body after New Zealand's Georgina Beyer and Italy's.Vladimir Luxuria  

She would also hold the distinction of being the first in Latin America, the first in South America and the first in the Western Hemisphere to do so. 


The election was held March 14, and have been unable as of yet to determine if her candidacy was a success.

If she did, I'll definitely let you know if Shelcy made history.