LGBTQ community’s Diversity March held in Uruguay

Montevideo, Sep 30 (EFE).- Dressed in the rainbow colors associated with the LGBTQ community, Uruguayans took Friday to the streets of the capital to demand for rights and answers from a state they feel, still marginalizes them.

The new edition of the March for Diversity, held every year at the end of September in Montevideo, had as its motto “The streets are ours, the State has to give answers” and took place in a joyous, festive and music-filled atmosphere.

The participants marched from the central Plaza Eduardo Fabini towards the Legislative Palace passing through Libertador Avenue, which was transformed into a sea of color with drag queens modeling and people dancing.

Trans activist Paula Moreno, a member of the Coordinator of the March, told EFE that the march was about “taking to the streets in a bright and festive way” while at the same time demanding that “the rights and public policies for which a lot of work was done” by the community be implemented.

“What we have been claiming and demanding is the little commitment of the State in terms of public policies that social movements have achieved, for example the Comprehensive Law for Trans People, which was approved four years ago but still does not allow us access to work, education, to have decent healthcare,” she said.

According to Moreno, the march came amid a difficult time, especially for the trans collectives.

On Sep. 6, Salome, a trans woman from the Eastern city of Pando, was murdered in a crime that the attorney general’s office initially classified as a trans-femicide.

However, the sentence handed in the case was for murder, according to Colectivo Trans del Uruguay president Colette Spinetti, who stressed the need for the definition of a trans-femicide to be worked out with the country’s legal institutions. EFE

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