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RIGHTS-MEXICO:
Pride Parade
Highlights Continued
Discrimination
Diego
Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, (IPS) -
Anhalí is putting the final
touches on the devil costume she
plans to wear for the Pride
Parade this Saturday in the
Mexican capital, which is
expected to draw around 60,000
members of the gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender (GLBT)
community.
”It's the best day of the year,”
declares Anhalí, who was born a
man but now dresses and lives as
a woman.
Held annually for over ten years
now, the parade passes along
some of Mexico City's main
streets before reaching a
downtown square, where a
performing arts festival will be
held.
Along the route, Anhalí will be
dancing to techno music and
trying not to think about her
friend Pablo, who won't be
accompanying her this year as he
usually does. Tired of repeated
incidents of homophobic
discrimination, Pablo finally
decided to emigrate to the
United States.
As well as a major social event,
the Pride Parade is an
opportunity for the GLBT
community to voice its demands,
which include respect for all
sexual orientations, the right
to same-sex marriage, and public
health care support for sex
change surgery.
In a survey conducted in May by
the Secretariat of Social
Development and the National
Council to Prevent
Discrimination, 94.7 percent of
members of so-called ”sexual
minorities” said they suffered
discrimination.
According to a number of
different research studies,
between five and 10 million
Mexicans, out of a total
population of 105 million,
define themselves as
homosexuals.
The discrimination suffered by
gays and lesbians sometimes
takes the form of crime. Around
30 homosexuals are murdered in
Mexico every year solely because
of their sexual orientation.
”I'm going to be up on a float
for the whole parade, to show
everybody who I am: a woman in a
man's body, but no less of a
person because of it,” Anhalí
told IPS.
The annual parade is also
attended by hundreds of
heterosexual participants, who
join in to show their support
for the demands of sexual
minorities.
The government and politicians
should listen to what the
marchers have to say on Saturday
and undertake the legal reforms
needed to guarantee the rights
of non-heterosexuals, said Mario
Arteaga, president of the
Mexican Pride Committee, one of
the groups organising the
parade.
”It is not simply a matter of
recognising the rights of a more
or less scandalous minority. It
is a matter of raising the
quality of our democracy in
general,” he added.
Over the past two months, the
government of President Vicente
Fox has carried out a media
public service campaign aimed at
promoting acceptance and respect
for sexual diversity.
”Equality begins when we
recognise that we all have the
right to be different,” and ”For
an influential, tolerant and
pluralistic Mexico” were among
the slogans used in the
campaign. The initiative was
bitterly opposed by the Catholic
Church leadership and
conservative groups, who claimed
that the messages expressed
served to promote homosexuality.
In addition to members of sexual
minorities, the Mexican
government survey conducted in
May also addressed other
minority groups and sectors of
society.
The results indicated that 94.4
percent of the disabled people
interviewed, 94.2 percent of the
women, 90.8 percent of the
indigenous people, 88.4 percent
of the elderly and 80.4 percent
of the practitioners of minority
religions felt that they were
discriminated against in Mexico.
In the same survey, 71 percent
of the homosexuals consulted
said that the greatest problem
they face is discrimination.
In addition, 54.5 percent said
they felt rejected by society,
43 percent believed they had
fewer educational opportunities
than non-homosexuals, and 72
percent said it was more
difficult for them to find
employment because of their
sexual preferences.
In the meantime, close to 45
percent said their families had
tried to force them to change
their sexual orientation.
During the Pride Parade, flyers
will be handed out calling on
the Mexican Congress to approve
a bill - on hold since 2003 -
that would recognise same-sex
civil unions.
They will also urge the
government to include sex
reassignment surgery in basic
public health care coverage.
Finally, the marchers will be
demanding greater efforts to
investigate crimes committed
against homosexuals.
The non-governmental Citizens
Commission Against Homophobic
Hate Crimes reports that between
1995 and 2003, there were 290
people murdered in Mexico as a
result of homophobic hatred, of
whom 275 were men. A full 126 of
these murders took place in
Mexico City alone, and most of
them remain unsolved and
unpunished.
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