Asunción, Paraguay (AP) – in Paraguayone of Most conservative country In Americamany LGBTQ+ people feel forced to leave their homes due to discrimination, harassment and gender-based violence.
Social rejection and lack of legal protection have made certain sacrifices to transgender women like Alejandra Mongelos. Finding a safe place where she could become herself became an ongoing struggle.
After relatives abused her, her life became a turn. This situation sparked a family argument in which the mother ends up in prison. Mongelos was then placed in the first home of several foster parents, where rejection became the norm.
“One of them was this guy who told me about God,” Mongelos now had 20 people.
She says she has ridden nearly 30 foster parents on her bike before meeting another trans woman who takes her under her wing at age 13. She sometimes stayed for a month. Otherwise, it’s not even a week.
“I kept running away,” she said. “My own caretaker abused me.”
Faith and politics support exclusion
Macho attitudes have long promoted discrimination against LGBTQ+ Paraguayans.
Nearly 90% of the population is Catholic. and a Repressive dictatorship The conservative Colorado Party, which ended in 1989, has determined that it has been barely interrupted since 1947.
A few months before he was elected in 2013, former president Horacio Cartes He compared gay people to monkeys and said that he would rather shoot himself before his son marry a man.
The current president, Santiago Peña, said before His election in 2023 He refuses to abortion, and Paraguay will protect marriage as a union between men and women.
“As the election cycle begins, the ruling party will begin a fight against what is called “gender ideology,” said attorney Michi Moragas, who specializes in cases that include women’s rights and LGBTQ+ causes. “It’s a way to turn gender issues into internal enemies.”
The campaign will be extended to classrooms and includes reproductive rights. Comprehensive sex education programs are prohibited at schools. The curriculum overseen by the Catholic Church ideally promotes abstinence. and The Power of Colorado Congressional parties are preventing discussions about abortion or same-sex marriage, both of which are prohibited.
“Men are male, women are female, and there’s a sexist culture where nothing else can be accepted,” said Ilen Roterra, a trans activist who became Mongelos’ leader. “That’s why this bias holds it.”
Shelters provide safety as no violence is recorded
Mongelos currently lives in Casa Diversa. shelter Founded in 2018 by Rotela to protect LGBTQ+ people.
Most beneficiaries migrated within Paraguay, where they needed safety, work and relationships. Rotela offers training to work as a clothing, diet, and hairdresser, and helps you overcome addiction.
“I also moved and was a victim of human trafficking,” Roterra said. “All my wounds are the result of the violence I experienced on the streets.”
Activists like her claim they have Paraguayans who have found trans women walking down the streets and throwing glass, liquids and stones. Others either chase them with a machete or shoot them.
These attacks are not generally recorded by authorities. Most cases are documented only by LGBTQ+ organizations. According to Moragas, the trans woman feels discouraged to file a police report after being attacked, and believes that officers will not take them seriously.
“In theory, police are supposed to pass the report to the prosecutor’s office,” she said. “The truth is, they often don’t — or abuse women, smirk them, and as a result, many decide not to file a complaint.”
Isabel Gamarra, director of another LGBTQ+ organization called Escalando, said she began moving after her family kicked out when she transitioned at age 15.
She became a sex worker for about 10 years. The violence became unbearable, and she fled to Argentina, where she lived for three years before returning to Paraguay.
“The murder of trans people was horrifying,” she said.
The battle for dignity beyond legal texts
Paraguayan law does not recognize transgender identity or hate crimes. The Constitution prohibits discrimination, but what this actually means, and the legal action taken by the victims, remains unknown. Given the legal loopholes, the bill is pending in Paraguay’s Parliament to establish a mechanism to address cases of discrimination.
Human rights advocates and community members protest every September 30th to seek its approval and demand Gender Identity Act.
This date commemorates the publication of an anonymous letter in 1959, which was considered a symbolic act of resistance to the regime of General Alfredo Strossner.
A few days before the letter’s publication, radio host Bernardo Aranda was found dead in his home, and Strossner used the case as an excuse to indict 108 men identified as gay men as suspects of crime.
Nelson Viveros participates in the protest every year. In Asuncion, he settled after leaving his hometown for years, he joined the march as a drug persona, dyslexia.
“I’m fine today, but I have to endure constant remarks,” said Viveros, who identifies as a gay man. “Everything I represent is being lightly spitted and marginalised. People want us to hide.”
His relationship with his family has never been as fractured as in the Casa Diversa trans woman’s relationship. However, it took some time for his parents to fully embrace his identity, and relocation became essential for him to feel comfortable.
“I don’t know if I want to wait for things to improve in Paraguay,” said Viveros, who had plans to move to the US but gave up on that dream when Donald Trump won the presidency.
“I want to live a better life and feel safe,” he added. “If something happens to me, I want to be able to blame it.”
He believes Paraguayan trans women, like Roterra and other activists, face more challenges than gay men and lesbians.
“I wear these clothes (in men’s clothing) because I take the bus and go for walks,” he said. “But you shouldn’t change your personality to survive.”
Rotela also participates in the September protest every year, saying he will not stop fighting to secure LGBTQ+ rights.
“We need to start breaking discrimination, stigma and prejudice,” she said. “If society doesn’t respect you, what is the point of the law?”
“If we’re still being killed, what will change our name?”
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