The Coup in Honduras and a Rise in LGBT Violence
Published July 23, 2009 @ 07:37PM PT
Last month, a military coup in Honduras ousted the country's President, Manuel Zelaya, and threw the country into a spiral of chaos complete with violence, curfews and a worried return to the type of Latin American politics that's a little less Democracy and a little more free-for-all. But is another side effect of the coup an increase in violence toward LGBT people.
Maybe. That's according to this post over at Pride Source, which features some information from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) asserting that a transgender activist was shot dead the day after the coup, and at least five other LGBT activists were detained in the days following the overthrow of Zelaya's presidency.
Local activists, apparently, are saying that military police are the ones who assassinated the transgender activist. Here's what the IGLHRC's Executive Director Cary Alan Johnson had to say about the worsening situation in Honduras:
The recent coup in Honduras is an illegal assault on democracy that violates the rights of all Honduran citizens, including those who identify as LGBT. We especially deplore the vicious murder and arbitrary arrests of LGBT people in the wake of this crisis.
A rise in LGBT violence: one more reason to condemn the illegal coup in Honduras, and the first overthrow of a Latin American government in more than two decades.
Of course, it's worth noting that Honduras was never a beacon of tolerance for LGBT people. Before the coup, international officials documented widespread violence toward the LGBT population in Honduras, particularly violence against transgender folks. In 2006, a report was released that documented over 200 murders of transgender people and sex workers by state and non-state actors, as well as numerous incidents of police brutality.
Looks like for LGBT folks in the country, the more things change politically, the more they're staying the same.
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Comments (1)
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Michael is the Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and previously was Communications Director for Pax Christi USA, a progressive Catholic human rights organization.
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It's unfortunate that the illegal coup is still contributing to the unjustified violence against LGBT people, especially Transgender people. Tolerance must spread to Honduras of which it's unjustified to murder or attack LGBT people and of which LGBT rights and protections will be recognized. The coup, although illegal, is not the wake-up for building up the LGBT rights movement in Honduras but the LGBT rights movement should still definitely build up for LGBT equality.
Posted by Edwin Bonilla on 07/24/2009 @ 07:55PM PT
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