LGBTI groups demonstrated this Sunday on the International Day of Trans Visibility in Mexico, to demand their rights to housing, health, employment, and security. They also asked politicians to end stigmatizing speeches and to be included in their government plans for the June 2 elections.
Likewise, the organizations demanded that the Mexican Government put an end to the wave of hate murders of trans women, which recorded at least five deaths in the first 15 days of 2024, and at least 17 in the first three months of the year.
In Mexico City, the mobilization, which brought together about 200 people, began in the Mexican Senate and passed through the central Paseo de la Reforma Avenue until reaching the capital’s Zócalo.
“Mexico is the second place in the world in hate crimes against trans people, in this country approximately every 4 days a trans woman is murdered, the panorama is improving, however, there are still many people spreading hate speech even from the Mexican Congress itself, “plastic artist Azul Picone told EFE.
She urged the presidential candidates, the ruling party Claudia Sheinabum and the opposition party Xóchitl Gálvez “to make a major effort to highlight and defend the human rights not only of trans people, but of other dissidents and minorities.”
“We have to demand our rights, we are tired of so much abuse by the Police of all women who practice sex work, of paying expensive rent and not having housing, of not having the right to health (…) These are the moments and spaces where we have to do politics, we have to demand from the Government,” said activist Diana Sánchez during one of the rallies.
“We must raise our voices, demand and take away what we deserve, no less than any other citizen, we demand equal treatment like that of any other person who lives in this city and in this country,” she added.
She recalled that with the presidential campaigns heading towards the June 2 elections, Mexico is experiencing a “very important political situation and we have to get on that train, let’s not applaud the candidates for applauding, first let’s see if it was our allies who They ask for the vote.”
Since the end of 2023, LGBTI groups and civil organizations have promoted the Law of Rights for Trans People in Mexico, known as the Comprehensive Trans Law, one of the main demands this day, which seeks to guarantee access to various rights such as access to housing, health, employment, and security, among others, violated due to gender violence and discrimination.
In the march, some activists from various sexual diversity contingents painted some sections of the streets in the center of the Mexican capital with the colors of the trans flag: blue, pink, and white.
While in the east of the city, the Transcontinental collective placed 18 dresses outside the Chamber of Deputies to protest against the murder of trans women that have been recorded in the first three months of the year.
Since 2009, every March 31, the International Day of Trans Visibility is commemorated, created by the American activist Rachel Crandall, to recognize and raise awareness about the rights and freedoms of trans people.
The march in Mexico City was the one that attracted the most people, but LGBTI groups promoted demonstrations in different states of Mexico, in the case of the state of Puebla it occurred on Saturday, March 30, and on the 26th it happened in Campeche, while this Sunday It also developed in states such as Colima and Nuevo León.
The Center for Support of Trans Identities (CAIT) has counted 590 murders of transgender people in Mexico between 2007 and 2022, an average of 53 murders per year.
The organization has said that if this trend of murders of trans people continues in 2024, Mexico will surpass Brazil in numbers and occupy first place in the world for murders of trans people, mainly women.
While the National Observatory of Crimes against LGBTI People, with the records monitored by its member organizations, has indicated that hate crimes – of which trans people, specifically women, are victims – continue to be alarming in Mexico.
