Even though the LGBITQ+ community of Honduras is seen as equal on paper, the reality is often a different one.
Radical conservatives and many religious leaders are trying to stigmatize the LGBTIQ+ community, which makes up for roughly 7-10% of the population. Misinformation and hate speech is used to keep LGBTIQ+ interests out of everyday lives of the Honduran population.
This article summarizes the struggles LGBTIQ+ citizens and organizations are confronted with, trying to claim their rights.
The Family Court of San Salvador, in El Salvador, authorized "the first name change of a trans man" according to his gender identity, as reported Thursday by the Foundation of Studies for the Application of Law (Fespad). The organization indicated that "the process of change of name and adequacy of the mention of gender and sex in the identification documents was presented in March 2022. This is a milestone for the LGBTQ+ community and human rights activists in El Salvador, who so often have denounced the violence and discrimination suffered by their community, forcing them to flee the country.
There has been little progress in the fulfillment of the reparation measures dictated by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court), which the LGBTIQ+ populations have awaited with so many expectations, to attract changes that will strengthen respect for their human rights. President Xiomara Castro created hope in the diverse populations, since she promised the reparation measures would be fulfilled quickly. But so far, there are 12 reparation measures established by the Court-IDH in response to the damages caused, which the government committed to comply with, but which, for the most part, diverse populations are still waiting.
On behalf of IRTF’s Rapid Response Network (RRN) members, we wrote six letters this month to heads of state and other high-level officials in Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras, urging their swift action in response to human rights abuses occurring in their countries. We join with civil society groups in Latin America to: (1) protect people living under threat, (2) demand investigations into human rights crimes, (3) bring human rights criminals to justice.
IRTF’s Rapid Response Network (RRN) volunteers write six letters in response to urgent human rights cases each month. We send copies of these letters to US ambassadors, embassy human rights officers, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, regional representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and desk officers at the US State Department. To read the letters, see https://www.irtfcleveland.org/content/rrn , or ask us to mail you hard copies.
We wrote to officials in Guatemala about continued impunity for violent crimes against transwomen. On July 2, 34-year-old Nancy Sacul Tut became the 16th LGBTQ+ leader killed in Guatemala in 2022.
On July 2 at 9:30pm in Guatemala City, Nancy Sacul Tut was shot in the face. A few days prior, Nancy had filed a complaint with the Public Ministry for death threats and violent attacks against her. Nancy, a Maya Q’eqchi’ woman originally from Alta Verapaz, was an active member of the Transwomen Sex Workers Collective of Trébol. Ilse Janeth Contreras, president of the Transwomen Collective, has been forced into hiding; she began receiving death threats after being interviewed in the media about Nancy’s assassination and the vulnerability of transwomen.
Nancy grew up in Chisec, Alta Verapaz Department, before moving to the capital city at age 17. She was rejected by her family and suffered discrimination in her hometown. Proud of her heritage, she continued to wear traditional Indigenous clothing representative of her region. Ilse Janeth Contreras described Nancy as a quiet woman who worked in the sex trade, in addition to selling clothes and vegetables in the market. As of July 5, the day Nancy was buried, authorities had not started an investigation into her assassination.
We are outraged by the pattern of disinterest and inaction on behalf of the state to defend and prevent violence against transwomen.
Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized abortion last year, loosening decades of restrictive laws in the predominately Catholic nation, leading to more permissive laws in several of its states. Now — because the abortion accessibility landscape that lawmakers had faced in Mexico until recently more closely resembles the terrain in parts of the U.S. — U.S. state legislators have begun to learn how Mexico's policymakers and women’s health advocates managed to provide safe abortion care to women — and how they won back certain abortion rights. “Being able to go to Mexico, and visit activists who have been doing the work on the ground for many, many years, who changed the culture, changed what is possible, who really forced lawmakers and health care providers to think differently about abortion as health care, and then to see the ways in which the policies and the legal landscape and the medical landscape have shifted as a result was incredibly powerful,” said Julie Gonzales, a Democratic Colorado state senator who traveled throughout Mexico with five other state legislators earlier this summer.
Honduras must respect and protect the human rights of the LGBTI community, experts said Tuesday at an event sponsored by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (Aecid) and the European Union (EU). The former Spanish trans deputy and activist of that group Carla Antonelli stated that Honduras must legislate in favor of vulnerable groups, such as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersexual (LGBTI) community. "Pedagogy is fundamental, the commitment of governments, but also in legislative matters (it is necessary) to have laws aimed at protecting vulnerable groups, in this case the LGBTI," he stressed. Honduras must promote regulations aimed at guaranteeing the LGBTI community "their fundamental rights, such as the recognition of their own identity and prevent discrimination," said the Spanish activist. Antonelli also stressed the importance of making the problems faced by this group visible, in order to "move forward in this society", and affirmed that Spain is an example of this.
The exclusion and violence suffered by people from the trans population is addressed with organization and political participation, however, the murders against them continue in impunity. The State does not respond to their demands, so there is already talk of a transfemicide. A community that suffers from stigma, discrimination and hatred is the trans population. Misunderstood and mocked, they are Guatemalan citizens abandoned by the State, without the right to work, health, housing, or a decent life.
In February, four women sat down before the full glare of El Salvador's press. Between them, they had served nearly 50 years in prison. Their crime was to have the misfortune of suffering a miscarriage - in a country with one of the strictest abortion laws in the world. As recently as May, a woman identified as "Esme" was sentenced to 30 years, also for aggravated homicide following a miscarriage. But protests have been difficult since the country's controversial president, Nayib Bukele, imposed a state of exception giving the police wide-ranging powers of arrest.
by Francesca Volpi
It is a secret that spreads by word of mouth in poor neighbourhoods across Honduras; where to buy the pills, how to use them without being discovered, what to say if you have to go to the hospital. Blunt objects, herbal infusions, plant medicine all become tools of a deadly trade in illegal abortions when no other option exists.
