Scandal as Puerto Rican politicians ignore trans murders, propose ate crimes reversal

By Paul Canning

Puerto Rico appears to be going through a wave of viscous murders of transgender people.

The US territory has had a hate crime law since 2002 covering crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but activists say that authorities are not using it.

Now Puerto Rican politicians in response to the murders, want to eliminate LGBT-specific protections from the hate crimes law.

The Puerto Rico Senate late last month approved a provision that would eliminate sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, ethnicity and religion from the current criminal code statute — but leave in political status, age and disability. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the amended penal code during a special legislative session.

Representative Héctor Ferrer, Sen. Eduardo Bhatia and LGBT and Dominican activists blasted the proposed provisions:

“It’s an outrage and now we’re calling upon the House to restore this to where it should be,” said Pedro Julio Serrano of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

“To eliminate these groups as protected categories is to invite the commission of hate crimes in Puerto Rico,” said Ferrer. “It is a setback in the country’s public policy.”

At least six transgender people have been murdered in Puerto Rico in the last 12 months — but none have been recorded as hate crimes.

According to Sophia Isabel Marro Cruz, the spokeswoman for Transexuales y Transgeneros en Marcha (Transexuals and Transgenders On The Move):

“None of these cases have been considered by the State as hate crimes despite offenders even admitting that their motivation was the ‘homosexual panic’. This shows an extreme level of homophobia and transphobia.”

The Justice Department noted a lack of prosecution under the island’s hate crimes law in damning report on the Puerto Rico Police Department it issued in September.

The Puerto Rico Department of Justice’s own reports indicate that prosecutors have yet to convict anyone of a bias-motive crime on the island.

Related articles

• Murders of Trans People in Puerto Rico Go Unrecorded (care2.com)

In Puerto Rico, third killing of LGBT person in 72 hours

Ramón “Moncho” Salgado

Source: edgeonthenet.com

By Michael K. Lavers

“Primera Hora” reported 9 June that Ramón “Moncho” Salgado was found dead along the side of a highway in Humacao on the island’s eastern coast. Thomas J. Bryan Picó, executive director of la Fundación Gaviota, told the newspaper that Salgado was a 46-year-old gay man who lived in Humacao. “Primera Hora” reported that Salgado’s body showed signs of blunt trauma.

Bryan pointed out that Salgado is the third LGBT Puerto Rican who has been found dead in 72 hours. As EDGE reported 6 June, a transgender woman was found shot to death in a Santurce intersection. Karlota Gómez Sánchez’s body was discovered roughly 48 hours after Alejandro Torres Torres was found stabbed to death in Ponce.

Salgado is the 18th LGBT Puerto Rican who has been murdered on the island over the last year and a half. This is simply unacceptable. And people really need to begin to pay attention to this appalling situation in Puerto Rico that continues to grow worse by the day.

Related articles

• Anti-LGBT violence in Puerto Rico 'must stop now,' says National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (miamiherald.typepad.com)
• Puerto Rican activists demand hate-crime charges amid gay, lesbian and transgender slayings (miamiherald.typepad.com)

In the Caribbean, homophobia varies widely

Mariela Castro at Cuba IDAHO rally

Source: IPS

By Dalia Acosta

Note: Trinidad & Tobago's Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (CAISO) comment that this article includes innacuracies:

"the frequency of sentences for buggery in Jamaica; the range of penalties (that extend to life in two territories); the role of CARICOM or its member nations in hosting regional GLBT activity; ILGA's impact in the region. We'd welcome journalism that simply talked to folks in the organizations cited here."

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While homosexuality is punishable by law in nine Caribbean island nations, gay activism is increasingly taking root in countries like Cuba.

"The situation in the Caribbean today is one of contrasts," Gloria Careaga, co-secretary general of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), founded in 1978 and with close to 700 member groups in over 110 countries, told IPS.

Differences are greatest between the Spanish-speaking and English-speaking areas of the Caribbean, Careaga, a Mexican psychologist who is also in charge of the Latin American and Caribbean region (ILGA-LAC), said by email on the occasion of International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, Tuesday May 17.

Careaga said "clear" signs of progress were the work of Cuban institutions in favour of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people and of strengthening their groups, the growing presence of studies on sexual diversity in Puerto Rican universities, and the emergence of lesbian organisations in the Dominican Republic.

However, "the English-speaking Caribbean seems to be unable to shake off the influence of Victorian morality, and not only maintains laws that criminalise gays and lesbians, but also argues the case for homophobia, for instance in Jamaica," she said.

A national survey carried out in Jamaica by the University of the West Indies in 2010 found that 89 percent of respondents were homophobic. The study polled 1,007 adults from 231 communities in the island nation.

Jamaican courts often sentence men who have sex with men (MSM) to prison terms with hard labour.

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