Social Issues

Ciudad Juarez fills with colors, asks for equality, unity amid violence

Ciudad Juarez, Jun 19 (EFE).- Hundreds of members of the LGBTI community marched Sunday through the streets of Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez, asking authorities and society to unite to fight for their rights and against violence.

The protesters waved the rainbow flag and wore multicolored headbands, fans and garments as they combined proclamations and celebrations on the floats.

The “EstoEl” (ThisThe) act was carried out under the slogan “Diverse Juarez” and with banners with phrases such as “Parliamentarians, may the rights we won be included in the constitution of the state of Chihuahua.”

The journey began outside the State Human Rights Commission, lasted approximately one kilometer and ended in the downtown area.

“The objective is to make ourselves visible and ask the authorities for pending tasks such as equal marriage, the approval of the gender identity law and legislate hate crimes,” LGBTI activist Nacho Diaz, the organizer of the event, told EFE.

He mentioned they suffer from labor, social, family and institutional discrimination, in all areas. The purpose is also to show that they are a sector made up of productive citizens and that they should be treated in the same way, Diaz said.

“The message we want to convey is that we are citizens like anyone else, gender is not at odds with intelligence or work, we are worthy of having a good worked,” Paloma de los Angeles, A trans woman who attended the march, told EFE

She said she sometimes had difficulties getting a job, since they told her that her papers did not correspond to her image.

She said the trans community is making slow but sure steps in this matter.

“This march is to raise awareness that we do not have a disability. In Ciudad Juarez there is machismo and homophobia,” said Martin Murillo, another of the attendees.

Also joining the march was Lourdes Ortiz, leader of the Transcribiendo collective, who told EFE that the trans community has to “deal with relatives, it is important that they are not rejected. That their uncles, grandparents, parents, re-educate themselves in new terms and understand they are wrong and that there is much to learn,

“It is important the love that is given to them, that they are loved and respected by all people equally,” she said.

Despite legal advances, Mexico is the second country in Latin America with the most homophobic and transphobic violence, after Brazil, according to the Rainbow Foundation’s National Observatory of LGBTI Hate Crimes.

The Letter S organization reported 79 hate killings against people from the LGBTI community in 2020, more than half were trans women and about a quarter were gay men. EFE

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