Forms and Contexts of Violence
Against Lesbian, Bisexual,
Trans and Intersex Persons

This report focuses on the most serious manifestations of violence against LGBTI persons, namely killings and serious non-lethal attacks such as rape and mob attacks

This report does not address other forms of violence experienced by LGBTI persons, for example verbal violence or psychological abuse.

Photo credit: torbakhopper - sister may joy b with you.

Violations of the Right to Life

"Every person has the right to have his life respected."
"No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life."

1. Extrajudicial Executions

Extrajudicial executions or killings are understood as deprivations of the right to life unlawfully perpetrated by State agents.

The IACHR has noted that for the majority of cases of violence against LGBT persons recorded in the Registry of Violence, there is little or no data as to the perpetrators of the violence, particularly in the cases of killings.

According to one regional organization, which obtained its information from witness testimony, police officers have been directly involved in a “good number” of killings of trans women.Redlactrans, The Night is Another Country: Impunity and violence against transgender women human rights defenders in Latin America

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El pueblo unido jamás será vencido

"El pueblo unido jamás será vencido". Photo Credit: 16:9clue

Feminine hands being hold.

Photo Credit: Jessica Alexandra Romero, Argentina. - Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

Two men kissing

Bésame - Photo Credit: Jeff Ortiz, Bolivia. - Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

It is reported that four military police officers, after having humiliated two trans sex workers in Salvador, Brazil, in August 1998, forced them to jump into the sea, where one of them drowned.

Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, E/CN.4/2000/3, 25 January 2000, para. 54

In Guatemala, "Paulina and Sulma –both transgender persons– were approached [...] by four persons riding motorbikes and wearing police uniforms[...] opened fire on them. Paulina died of her injuries in the hospital three hours later. Sulma was severely injured but survived. [...] The policemen guarding her at the hospital repeatedly told her that she should stop making statements about the incident to investigators and others, as she was putting her life at risk by doing so. Uncertain whether this was well-intended advice or veiled death threats, she moved to a secret location". The IACHR granted her precautionary measures.

Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Addendum: Mission to Guatemala, A/HRC/4/20/Add.2, 19 February 2007, para. 33.

In December 2008, Nohelia Flores Álvarez was stabbed seventeen times in the throat, back, stomach and arms by a male police officer in Honduras, after the officer held her at gunpoint demanding sex, to which she refused. The police officer was sentenced to ten years in prison on September 2009. In January 2010, the IACHR granted two precautionary measures, as well as that of three other persons who were being threatened in the context of the trial against the police officers, including two state agents, members of the Dirección Nacional de Investigación Criminal in Tegucigalpa, who were investigating the case.

Amnesty International, Report: The State of the World´s Human Rights, 2011, Chapter on Honduras; IACHR, Summary of PM 18-10 – Indyra Mendoza Aguilar et al., Honduras, 29 January 2010.

A young gay couple, aged 17 and 22, in Mexico City were both expelled from a nightclub after a quarrel between both of them. A police patrol car and other cars arrived and police agents violently pushed them into a white vehicle that was escorting the patrol car. The bodies of the two men were found the following day with numerous signs of beatings in various parts of the body (some of which were so brutal they left bones uncovered), their hands and feet strongly tied with wire, their ears amputated, and with three gunshot wounds in the head of each man.

Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Distrito Federal, Recomendación 8/2013, Anexo IV, Caso A, Expediente CDHDF/IV/122/CUAUH/13/D0208, p. 1-14; La Razón, “Arraigan a policía por las muertes del Living,” 23 January 2013.

The IACHR received information of alleged executions by state agents of a 15-year-old boy in Patu, Brazil, a 40-year-old trans woman in Mexico city, and the aforementioned two gay men aged 17 and 22 in Mexico City. The IACHR was also informed of the killing of Angelina Lucía Martínez Figueroa, a 19-year-trans woman in Cartagena, Colombia, due to shots fired into the air by a police agent in an effort to break up a street fight.

2. Killings

According to the Registry of Violence, gay men, or those perceived as such, were more likely to be killed by bladed weapons and in private spaces, such as the home of the victim..

Whereas trans women and trans persons who express themselves as female were more likely to be killed by firearms, and their bodies were more likely to be found in the streets or other public spaces, and sometimes in situations linked to sex work.

Organizations report that killings of LGBT persons are not found in police records, and where they are, they end in impunity..Organización de Apoyo a una Sexualidad Integral Frente al SIDA (OASIS), Crímenes de Odio en Guatemala: una Aproximación a los Retos y Desafíos para el Desarrollo de una Investigación sobre Crímenes en el País en contra de Gay, Bisexuales y Trans, abril de 2010, p. 35.

The IACHR was informed of numerous killings of trans women who were sex workers, most of the killings allegedly perpetrated by their clients. These included victims who were —among many other violent acts— smashed in the head with rocks, stoned to death while offering their services, beaten to death with a broken bottle, stabbed while waiting in their regular spots, repeatedly shot when approaching a car, and even shot following a disagreement over fees.

Entertainment and socialization spaces for gay persons, and their vicinities, are also common locations in which killings take place. Bars and dance clubs are reported to be frequent locations where perpetrators target their victims, a modus operandi colloquially referred to as “pick-up crime.”

People holding candles after the killing an LGBTI person

Photo Crefit: Guillermo Fabrizio Calle Corzo, Perú. Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

Photo of trans woman in Panamá

Photo Credit: Duiren Wagua López, Panamá. Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

Signs asking for justice after the killing of the human rights defender Diana Sacayán

XXIV LGTBIQ Pride March, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photo Credit: florafotos en Flickr.

Trans woman in a protest in Argentina

Photo Credit: Fiona Ciocia, Argentina. Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

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Numbers of the Registry of LGBTI Violence

months (January 1, 2013 al March 31, 2014)
OAS Member States
days (January 1, 2013 al March 31, 2014)
Killings of LGBT persons, or perceived as such
or more killings per week

In April 2014, in Brazil, a bisexual woman —who had a 6-year-old son and who had left her boyfriend to live with a woman— was viciously stabbed, disemboweled, and her body abandoned near a railroad track. The perpetrator cut out the victim’s vagina and inserted it in her mouth before leaving. Investigators stated that this action spoke to the motive of the crime and that a former boyfriend of the woman was among the suspects.

In January 2014, in Brazil, a 40-year-old gay man was found near death near a sugar cane plantation in João Pessoa, his body showing signs of having been brutally beaten and raped. He was hospitalized but died shortly after.

In May 2013, a 22-year-old gay man was verbally attacked with homophobic epithets on the street and then run down with a car three consecutive times in Rio de Janeiro. Although his friends took him to a hospital, he did not survive the wounds; his spinal cord was fractured in three places and his hip, ribs and lungs were also severely affected.

Governo do Rio de Janeiro - Rio Sem Homofobia, “Policia prende acusado de matar Eliwellton da Silva Lessa,” 9 August 2013; Pragmatismo Politico, “Motorista passa com veículo três vezes por cima de homossexual,” 3 May 2013.

In 2006, a serial killer was known to be targeting gay men in Mexico City by seducing them at gay bars, kidnapping them, and demanding ransom from their families. At least four gay men were killed. The gruesome details of the cold-blooded confessions of the serial killer included different ways in which he tormented his victims during their captivity, such as engraving marks on their foreheads with bladed instruments. The killer declared that “he had done society a favor, because gay men corrupt children.”

Procuraduría General de la República, Informe de labores. Resumen Ejecutivo, September 2006, p. 23; El Universal, “Presenta la AFI a asesino serial de homosexuales,” 26 January 2006; Letra S, Sida, Cultura y Vida Cotidiana A.C., Informe de crímenes de odio por homofobia México 1995-2008, 2009, p.12;

In recent years, online dating sites and location-based phone dating applications have also been reported as tools used by perpetrators to find their victims. In November 2014 in Colombia, there was reportedly a criminal gang that would lure gay men through social media in order to rob, attack, or kill them.

[United States] National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and HIV-Affected Hate Violence in 2013, 2014, p. 92; Vocativ, “Death by Grindr: Is It the New Killer App?,” May 2014; Colombia Diversa, Activista LGBT fue brutalmente asesinado en Bogotá, 18 de noviembre de 2014; Sentiido, La Muerte de Guillermo Garzón, más allá de un “crimen pasional”, 20 November 2014.

In January 2013, a group of men in a car passed in front of a gay bar in Mexico City and started screaming slurs directed at two patrons who were hugging each other. When one of the gay men confronted the group, one of the men in the car pulled out a gun and shot him dead on the spot.

Response to the IACHR Questionnaire on Violence against LGBTI Persons in the Americas submitted by Defensores de Derechos Humanos por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (México), received by IACHR Executive Secretariat on 20 December 2013, p.135; Terra Noticias, “PGJDF investiga crimen de odio a pareja homosexual,” 27 January 2013.

Violations of the Right to Personal Integrity

"Every person has the right to have his physical, mental, and moral integrity respected."
"Every person has the right to personal liberty and security."

1. Violations in the context of law enforcement:
Torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment

Police involvement in discrimination and violence against LGBT persons leads others to believe that they can harm persons with no normative sexual orientations and gender identities with impunity.

The IACHR is concerned with the overall context of police abuse against LGBT persons.

“To the police, all transgenders are prostitutes.”Human Rights Watch, Sex Workers at Risk, Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution in Four US Cities, 2012, p. 20.

The IACHR has received reports from multiple organizations of cases in which police agents not only perpetrate violence, but also incite others to attack LGBT persons, or are indifferent toward violence perpetrated by third parties.

Police and other State security agents –legally entitled to enforce public order– share the same attitudes and prejudices against LGBT persons that are prevalent in society at large.

The defender explained: “only some police are abusive, but the lack of response and impunity concerns the whole police force.Testimony of a transgender woman human rights defender from Cali. Meeting of LGBTI persons with the President of the IACHR in Cali. September 30, 2014.

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The violence occurs at all stages of police custody, including apprehension, transportation in police vehicles and, above all, in the premises of police stations and lock-up facilities:

  • extortions and the demand of sexual favors;
  • the use of excessive force; vicious beatings;
  • the use of firearms to hurt or incapacitate victims;
  • instances in which trans women are forced to strip fully naked in public;
  • constant hostility and acts of humiliation such as forcible removal of wigs
  • Intentionally referring to someone with a gender they do not identify with (misgendering); Willful misgendering occurs when someone refers to a person using terms (generally pronouns, nouns, and adjectives) that express a gender with which they do not identify, in order to humiliate and debase. This takes place when trans women are referred to as men or according to their male registered name and when trans men are referred to as women or according to their female registered name. See, for example: [Colombia] Colombia Diversa, Cuando el Prejuicio Mata: Informe de Derechos Humanos de Lesbianas, Gay, Bisexuales y Personas Trans en Colombia 2012, Junio de 2014, p. 30.
  • rape and other instances of sexual violence;
  • and constant verbal abuse.
trans women discriminated by police officers [Argentina] Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INDEC), Primera Encuesta Sobre Población Trans 2012, September 2012, p. 19.
transgender women sex workers had to agree to sexual favors demanded by police agents [Republica Dominicana] Human Rights Observatory for Vulnerable Groups et. al, Discrimination and violence towards Transgender women in the Dominican Republic, 27 October 2014, p. 4.

In 2011 in Belize, two police officers arrived at a bar. One of the police officers asked two trans women: “why are you dressing like that if you are men?” The officers proceeded to arrest the women and, when asked for a reason, the officers answered: “because you look suspicious, you confuse me.” In transit, the two trans women were subjected to mistreatment. The abuse continued at the lock up facility, with one police officer insinuating that they “should be murdered and dumped on a nearby highway.” The women suffered rape threats from other detainees and one of them was forced to strip naked. They were released the next morning, with no charges brought against them. They did not file charges out of fear of reprisals and further victimization.

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United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM) - Belize Youth Empowerment for Change (BYEC), Final Presentation before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 28 March 2014, p.6.

“All my arrests always came from just walking on the street, coming out of a club, or just because a cop identified me as transgender. They would always look for condoms. They don’t care about you, they take your purse, throw it on their car, your stuff they throw it on the floor, they pat frisk you, they ask if you have fake boobs, take them off right there, if you have a wig, take it off. It’s humiliating. Right there in the street, they take your identity right there. When they find condoms, they say ‘what are these for… how many dicks did you suck today? How much money did you make today?”

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Human Rights Watch interview with Victoria D. [trans woman], New York City, January 20, 2012 featured in: Human Rights Watch, Sex Workers at Risk, Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution in Four US Cities, 2012, p. 25.

In 2013, a group of men were dancing during carnival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, when police officers started beating them, uttering slurs and making comments that “they did not like it that they were effeminate.”

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Response to the IACHR Questionnaire on Violence against LGBTI Persons in the Americas submitted by Madre, ILGHRC, Cuny School of Law, SEROVie and FACSDIS, (Haiti), received by the IACHR Executive Secretariat on 25 November 2013, p. 2.

In Mexico City, a young man was allegedly arrested by federal police officers while he was walking on the street late at night. When he asked why he was being arrested, the officers answered “because you are gay” and then asked him to perform oral sex on them.

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Agenda LGBT A.C., Informe de la situación de homofobia en México del año 2013, Febrero 2013 (actualización a Junio 2013); La Jornada, “Joven fue detenido, vejado, golpeado y robado por policías ‘por andar de puto’,” 27 March 2013.

In 2013, two men were talking at a park in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, two police agents pushed the two men into the police car while referring to them as women, and drove them to a police station. When they demanded an explanation for their arrest, a police officer answered: “If you need a reason, we will say that you both were having oral sex at Parque Duarte.” Another officer then said that the men should be put in cells where rough men would rape them to “make them men.” Police agents told them that being a “faggot” was worse than being a criminal. The next day they were released without any further explanation.

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Agenda LGBT A.C., Informe de la situación de homofobia en México del año 2013, Febrero 2013 (actualización a Junio 2013); La Jornada, “Joven fue detenido, vejado, golpeado y robado por policías ‘por andar de puto’,” 27 March 2013.

Allegedly, police officers were involved in the attack of a gay man in Jamaica which ultimately led to a mob killing. The incident began with the police officers beating the victim with batons, after which they urged others to beat him. The victim was dismembered, stabbed and stoned to death.

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Human Rights Watch, Hated to Death: Homophobia, Violence and Jamaica’s HIV/AIDS Epidemic, November 2004, p. 18; Regional Meeting of LGBTI Activists from CARICOM, The Unnatural Connexion: Creating Social Conflict Through Legal Tools, Laws Criminalizing Same-Sex Sexual Behaviors and Identities and Their Human Rights Impact In Caribbean Countries, 2010, Report submitted to the IACHR in November 2010, p.30.

A trans woman in Honduras explained that when a drunk and aggressive client stabbed her in the arms, neck, and leg in September 2011, she sought help from the police. She recalls: “the police didn’t ask me to make a statement, they laughed at me and asked me for sexual services even after I had told them that I was injured and needed help. They told me that I got what I deserved for being out in the street.”

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Testimony given by a Transgender Human rights defender in El Progreso, Honduras, July 2012. Redlactrans, The Night is Another Country: Impunity and violence against transgender women human rights defenders in Latin America, 2012, p. 16.

When Argentine human rights defender and activist Diana Sacayán was insulted and attacked at a bar in 2013, she sought the assistance of two gendarmerie agents who were nearby. The agents spoke to her attacker, allowed him to leave and went back to her saying, “you’d better start running.” They then hit her with a baton. When she arrived at the local police station to file a report, the chief officer on duty refused to take her report and had her taken to a nearby hospital. No record was made of her presence at the police station. She suffered a fractured nose and cheekbone.

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A transgender activist en El Progreso, Honduras, recounted: “[in] 2012, three policemen forced me into a patrol car telling me they were going to take me to the station, but they took me to an isolated place and kicked me and punched me in the stomach for over 15 minutes. They left me lying there and threatened to kill me if I talked.

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Redlactrans, The Night is Another Country: Impunity and violence against transgender women human rights defenders in Latin America, 2012, p. 15.

In Colombia, there were also reports that members of security forces beat many trans women, particularly those who are sex workers, in the places where they receive surgery, such as silicone implants, as if wishing to destroy valuable parts of their bodies.

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Corporación Caribe Afirmativo and Global Rights, written information submitted at the hearing “Reports of Violence against LGBTI Persons in the Caribbean Region of Colombia,” held by the IACHR on October 27, 2014.

In Peru, Luis Alberto Rojas Marín, a young gay man, allegedly was arrested by police agents and suffered severe physical violence while in detention, including torture. Petitioners allege that three police officers raped the alleged victim with a rubber baton, in a context in which he was sexually harassed and insulted because of his sexual orientation. The IACHR declared this case admissible.

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IACHR, Report No. 90/14, P-446-09. Peru. Luis Alberto Rojas Marín. Admissibility. November 6, 2014.

156 Period of Sessions of the IACHR - Hearing: Situation of LGBT Persons Deprived of Lberty- Peticionaria: Ani Vera, Almas Cautivas - Photo Credit: Daniel Cima

2. Persons Deprived of Liberty

LGBT persons who are deprived of their liberty are at a heightened risk for sexual violence – including a higher risk for multiple sexual assaults – and other acts of violence and discrimination at the hands of custodial staff or other persons deprived of liberty.

LGBT persons are at the bottom of the informal hierarchy in detention facilities, which results in double or triple discrimination, and they are disproportionately subjected to torture and other forms of ill treatment.Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, A/HRC/22/53, 1 February 2013, para. 79.; UN, General Assembly, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,, Manfred Nowak”, 5 February 2010, A/HRC/13/39/Add.5

Additionally, gay men or trans women deprived of their liberty may be forced into servitude by other inmates, required to do menial tasks on their behalf, and provide sexual services to them.

Several NGOs report that LGBT persons often decide to remain in their cells as much as possible in order to avoid being attacked by other inmates.

Trans women are at a heightened risk of sexual violence because of their routine imprisonment in male facilities, without regard to the specificities of the person or the case.

Los Estados Miembros de la OEA deben tomar medidas para asegurar, siempre que sea posible, que las personas trans participen en las decisiones relativas a la asignación de su alojamiento en centros de detención.

About LGBT persons deprived from liberty:

were sexually victimized by another inmate in the United StatesResponse to the IACHR Questionnaire on Violence against LGBTI Persons in the Americas submitted by Asistencia Legal por los Derechos Humanos, ASILEGAL (México), received by the IACHR Executive Secretariat on 1 November 2013, p. 9.
were subjected to various forms of abuse in MexicoUS Department of Justice - Bureau of Justice Statistics, PREA Data Collection Activities 2013, June 2013, NCJ 242114, p.2.

OAS Member States must adopt urgent and effective measures to guarantee the life, personal security, and integrity of LGBT persons, or those perceived as such, in the region’s places of detention, including prisons and immigration detention centers.

The IACHR calls on OAS Member States to restrict the indiscriminate and prolonged use of solitary confinement of LGBT persons in places of detention, including immigration detention centers and prisons.

Ashley Diamond, a 33-year-old trans afro-descendant woman deprived of liberty in Georgia, United States, had been raped at least seven times since being detained in 2012, and that her access to hormone therapy had been withheld. According to a news report, she had been mocked by prison officials as a “he-she thing” and thrown into solitary confinement for “pretending to be a woman.” Diamond has undergone drastic physical changes after being denied access to hormones and, in desperation, has tried to castrate herself and kill herself several times. In an interview, Diamond said, “every day I struggle with trying to stay alive and not wanting to die. Sometimes I think being a martyr would be better than having to live with all this.

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On November 26th 2013, Ayelén, a trans woman, was arrested by local police in the city of San Miguel de Tucumán in Argentina. She was allegedly taken to the police station where five police officers raped her. She was then taken to a cell shared with other prisoners, where she was raped again by several of them. The following day she was forced to clean the police station. She managed to escape, and she went to a local hospital and filed a report. While the physical examinations were being performed at the hospital, police agents showed up and persuaded her to drop the charges. She was even forced to sign a document in which she declared that what she had previously stated was untrue.

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Akahatá (Equipo de Trabajo en Sexualidades y Géneros) & Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, Situación de los Derechos Humanos relacionados con las personas LGBTI y los Derechos Sexuales y Derechos Reproductivos en Argentina, January 2014, para. 4.

Verõnica Bolina, an afro-Brazilian trans woman deprived of liberty in São Paulo, Brazil. According to the information received, she had been severely beaten, tortured, and subjected to degrading treatment at the hands of police after she bit off half the ear of a prison warden.

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Letter dated April 27, 2015, (Reference: Investigation in the case of Veronica Bolina). Filed with the IACHR Executive Secretariat.

I was detained 18 times because I was a sex worker… they took me from the street and told me I was disrupting public order (escándalo en la vía pública) so they would lock me up. At the beginning I was in sector 10, which was only for gay and trans persons, but that (disappeared)… the last time I was housed with men… I was raped, abused… you have to give the “chiefs” sex in order to survive. These acts are not denounced out of fear… when I entered a prison, I was treated as a man and I was insulted… having a trans identity is very challenging… some trans women prefer to cut their hair short because they rather pass as gay and not as trans women, because we are victimized the most.”

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Testimony by a trans woman who was formerly deprived of liberty in Guatemala. REDNADS, Diagnóstico…. , p. 65.

3. Rape and Sexual Violence

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex persons can be particularly vulnerable to sexual violence.

One of the reasons for this vulnerability stems from the fact that diverse sexual orientations and identities challenge the core notions of heteronormative sex, sexuality, and gender.

Forcible introduction of objects into the anus appears to be a common way of inflicting excruciating pain on victims, and is usually a part of brutal acts of violence perpetrated against gay men and trans women.

A trans woman in Barranquilla, Colombia who, after suffering many years of attacks and discrimination, was brutally raped by four men who introduced several ants into her anus. She committed suicide shortly after the episode.

LGBT and gender non-conforming persons are at high risk of being denied medical treatment or being further victimized when seeking health care following a sexual assault, it may be the case that the impact of sexual assaults on LGBT and gender non-conforming persons is higher than on gender-conforming and non-LGBT victims of assault.

The IACHR has also received information on rape and acts of sexual violence committed against intersex persons, since in the “social imaginary” these types of sexual abuses are part of a way to “cure intersex bodies.”

The IACHR has also received information concerning the related stigma faced by gay men who are victims of sexual violence.

So-called Corrective Rapes

Within this group, lesbian and bisexual women are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence.

Sexual violence, particularly against lesbian, bisexual and trans women, sometimes called –incorrectly- “corrective rape”. This type of sexual violence attempts to modify, or rather punish, sanction or discipline persons because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression are perceived as challenging traditional norms of gender and sexuality.

The very concept of “corrective rape” is incoherent and deplorable, since any attempt to “correct” a fundamental aspect of a human being’s life by violence is incompatible with the human dignity.

The IACHR notes that this type of sexual violence ranks among the least reported types of violence against LGBT persons in the Americas. In addition to the reasons why victims are often deterred from reporting sexual violence generally, such as shame and re-victimization, the reporting of “corrective” rape may additionally raise victims’ fears of revealing their sexual orientation or gender identity.

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In the United States in 2010, a gang kidnapped and brutally raped two 17-year-old gay adolescents and a 30-year-old gay man, using a baseball bat and the wooden handle of a plunger. The victims were also tied and burned with cigarettes on their nipples and penises.

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New York Times, “Lured Into a Trap, Then Tortured for Being Gay,” 8 October 2010

In 2013, the IACHR received information about a case in Brazil in which a former alderman was viciously stabbed 106 times and was anally penetrated with the handle of a sickle.

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A trans woman in Barranquilla, Colombia who, after suffering many years of attacks and discrimination, was brutally raped by four men who introduced several ants into her anus. She committed suicide shortly after the episode.

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IACHR Chair meeting with LGBTI organizations in the Colombian Caribbean (and Cali and Tumaco). Information provided by human rights defender in Barranquilla. Cartagena, Colombia. 3 October 2014.

A young afro-descendant woman who, after telling her father she was a lesbian at the age of 11, was allegedly subjected to rape during a 14-year period by her father’s friends, which resulted in five children. After she managed to escape, she was then raped several times at the hands of illegal armed groups, often in front of her partners, as a punishment for her sexual orientation, and has been consequently internally displaced several times.

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IACHR Press Release 118/14, "IACHR Chair Concludes Visit to Colombia", October 10, 2014

In 2007, in Jamaica a 17-year-old lesbian was held captive by her own mother and her pastor for 18 days. During this time, different religious men raped her repeatedly, day after day, in an attempt “to make her take men” and “live as god instructed.

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Regional Meeting of LGBTI Activists from CARICOM, The Unnatural Connexion: Creating Social Conflict Through Legal Tools, Laws Criminalizing Same-Sex Sexual Behaviors and Identities and Their Human Rights Impact In Caribbean Countries, 2010, Report submitted to the IACHR in November 2010, p.34.

In 2010, in Jamaica, a lesbian woman was gang-raped by four men from her community who had complained about her “butch” or “manly” attire. After she was raped, the rapists cut her with a knife “so she could better take men.” A few days after that episode, a friend of the first woman was abducted in a car at knifepoint, brutally raped, and then dumped half-naked. The women refused to go to the police because of the perceived ineffectual nature of any police response.

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Regional Meeting of LGBTI Activists from CARICOM, The Unnatural Connexion: Creating Social Conflict Through Legal Tools, Laws Criminalizing Same-Sex Sexual Behaviors and Identities and Their Human Rights Impact In Caribbean Countries, 2010, Report submitted to the IACHR in November 2010, p.34.

In 2010, in Jamaica, a lesbian woman was gang-raped by four men from her community who had complained about her “butch” or “manly” attire. After she was raped, the rapists cut her with a knife “so she could better take men.” A few days after that episode, a friend of the first woman was abducted in a car at knifepoint, brutally raped, and then dumped half-naked. The women refused to go to the police because of the perceived ineffectual nature of any police response.

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Regional Meeting of LGBTI Activists from CARICOM, The Unnatural Connexion: Creating Social Conflict Through Legal Tools, Laws Criminalizing Same-Sex Sexual Behaviors and Identities and Their Human Rights Impact In Caribbean Countries, 2010, Report submitted to the IACHR in November 2010, p.34.

In 2012, in Haiti, five police officers gang-raped two lesbians and during the attack they told them: “You have never been with a man? You are not a real woman! We will make you one!

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Response to the IACHR Questionnaire on Violence against LGBTI Persons in the Americas submitted by Madre et. al, (Haiti), received by the IACHR Executive Secretariat on 25 November 2013, p. 2.

4. Mob Attacks

"Large crowds barricading, throwing objects (such as stones and Molotov cocktails), or calling for lynching of gay men"IACHR, Press Release No. 79/13. IACHR Expresses concern about Mob attacks, police abuse and other forms of violence against LGBTI persons. October 24, 2013.

These attacks usually start with a person or a group of persons being singled out as “gay” The word used may not necessarily be “gay” but instead can be local expressions such as “battyman,” “sissy boy,” “shemale,” or other offensive epithets. by passers-by in public places. Tension tends to escalate quickly and, within minutes, large numbers of people may gather around the victim or victims. Several reported cases include victims being chased while trying to escape or having bottles, stones, or other objects thrown at them. In cases where a crowd surrounds the victim, physical violence may escalate to the point of leaving the victim severely wounded or even dead.

n recent years , the Commission has received information about alarming numbers of large angry mobs or (mob attacks ), particularly in Caribbean countries, such as Belize , Haiti , Jamaica and St. Lucia attacks, among others. See IACHR, Annual Report 2014, Chapter V: Follow-up of Recommendations issued by the IACHR in its country or thematic reports, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Jamaica, para. 173 and ff.

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An alarming case took place in 2012 at the University of Technology, Jamaica, when a student was chased by a group of male and female students through the university campus. The victim was able to reach the security office, where the mob remained screaming outside. A video shows how at least two guards slapped, kicked and punched the student in front of the crowd, while members of the mob began entering through the security office windows.

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The Gleaner, “CAUGHT ON TAPE! UTech Security Guards Beat Alleged Gay Student,” 2 November 2012.

In July 2013, Dwayne Jones, a 16-year-old transgender teen, was viciously stabbed and shot to death by a mob at a party in Jamaica. Jones was reported to have suffered relentless teasing in high school for being effeminate, until dropping out for good. Jones had also been expelled from her house at the age of 14 and had resorted to living on the street.

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The Jamaica Gleaner, “J-FLAG Condemns Mob Killing Of Alleged MoBay Cross-Dresser,” 24 July 2013; The Huffington Post Gay Voices, “Dwayne Jones, Jamaican Transgender Teen, Murdered By Mob: Report,” 11 August 2013; Response to the IACHR Questionnaire on Violence against LGBTI Persons in the Americas submitted by Amnesty International, received by the IACHR Executive Secretariat; Human Rights Watch, Jamaica: Cross-Dressing Teenager Murdered, August 1, 2013; The New York Post, Transgender teen killed by mob in Jamaica after wearing dress to party - casts light on nation's 'rabid homophobia', August 11, 2013.

In Jamaica, police had to be called to rescue two gay men from another irate crowd that claimed the men “were engaging in an illegal activity in a house” in St. Catherine, Jamaica. Prior to the police arrival, an occupant of the house attacked one of the accused men.

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The Daily Extra, Angry crowds surround gay men in two Jamaican incidents, August 6, 2013; CVM TV (Kingston, Jamaica), CVM Newswatch, online video, August 1, 2013 [minute 25:27].

A mob firebombed a house in which several gay men were living in Porto Bello, St James, Jamaica.

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The Jamaica Gleaner, “House Occupied By Gays Firebombed,” October 10, 2013.

In Haiti, two men thought to be gay were beaten to death during an anti-gay march led by the Haitian Coalition of Religious and Moral Organizations (Coalition Haïtienne des organisations religieuses et morales). The march took place in July 2013, in Port-au-Prince, amidst a wave of violence against lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual, and intersex persons.

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Medical Violence Against Intersex Persons

The IACHR has received information about human rights violations carried out against intersex persons because their bodies do not physically conform to the medically and culturally defined standards for “female” and “male” bodies.

Intersex children are subjected to interventions, including surgery to change the appearance of their genitals, which are not medically necessary. Anne Tamar-Mattis, “Exceptions to the Rule: Curing the Law's Failure to Protect Intersex Infants” in Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice, Volume 21, Issue 1, September 2013, p. 99, citing: Ford, Kishka-Kamari, "First, Do No Harm, The Fiction of Legal Parental Consent to Genital-Normalizing Surgery on Intersexed Infants” in Yale Law & Policy Review, No. 19, 2001, p. 476; Beh, Hazel Glenn & Diamond, Milton, “An Emerging Ethical and Medical Dilemma: Should Physicians Perform Sex Assignment Surgery on Infants with Ambiguous Genitalia?” in Michigan Journal of Gender and Law, No. 7, 2000, p. 7.

A study conducted in the United States by the Human Rights Commission of San Francisco found that many parents choose "normalizing" interventions for their intersex children based on misinformation and/or coercion from doctors recommending such procedures. Human Rights Commission of The City & County of San Francisco, A Human Rights Investigation into the Medical “Normalization” of Intersex People, 28 April 2005, p. 19.

"Medical treatments of an intrusive and irreversible nature, when lacking a therapeutic purpose, may constitute torture or ill-treatment when enforced or administered without the free and informed consent of the person concerned"

UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

Photo credit: Zak Milofsky

Specific human rights violations

commonly suffered by intersex persons

Irreversible sex assignment and genital “normalizing” surgeries

Sex assignment and genital surgeries practiced without informed consent on intersex children and adults in various countries in the Americas, most of which are reported to be irreversible in nature and aimed at attempting to “normalize” the appearance of the person’s genitals.

“Mutilaciones genitales infantiles”

Some intersex organizations and human rights defenders characterize these surgeries as infant genital mutilations.IACHR, Hearing on Situation of Human Rights of Intersex Persons in the Americas, 147th Period of Sessions, 15 March 2013;

"Cosmetic" Surgeries

Intersex organizations and activists refer to these surgeries as “cosmetic” because their only purpose is making bodies look like the dominant standard of what constitutes a “male” or “female” body.IACHR, Hearing on Situation of Human Rights of Intersex Persons in the Americas, 147th Period of Sessions, 15 March 2013;

Causing great harm

Non-medically necessary surgeries and procedures have been reported to cause intersex children and adults great harm, including —but not limited to— chronic pain, life-long trauma, genital insensitivity, sterilization and diminished or lost capacity for sexual pleasure.IACHR, Hearing on Situation of Human Rights of Intersex Persons in the Americas, 147th Period of Sessions, 15 March 2013; IACHR, Annex to the Press Release Issued at the close of the 147th Session, April 5, 2013.

Multiple invasive procedures

Reports indicate that most procedures do not consist of a single intervention, but instead involve multiple invasive surgeries (which repeatedly expose children to the inherent risks of anesthesia and surgery in infancy), recurrent use of dilation contraptions, or administration of hormones.Human Rights Commission of The City & County of San Francisco, A Human Rights Investigation into the Medical “Normalization” of Intersex People, 28 April 2005, pp. 31, 43; Advocates for Informed Choice (Tamar-Mattis, Anne), Report to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: Medical Treatment of People with Intersex Conditions as a Human Rights Violations, 2013, p. 5.

Vaginal dilation

Regular vaginal dilation is often imposed on a child following vaginoplasty. This is achieved through the repeated forcing of an object into the vagina of a child, a practice which has been described as “extremely painful, highly traumatic, and comparable to sexual abuse in terms of the patient’s experience.”.Advocates for Informed Choice (Tamar-Mattis, Anne), Report to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: Medical Treatment of People with Intersex Conditions as a Human Rights Violations, 2013, p. 3.

Involuntary sterilization

These surgeries and procedures may result in the termination of all or some of the reproductive capacity of intersex persons.Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Women, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and the World Health Organization, Eliminating forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary sterilization: An interagency statement, 2014, p. 7.

Subjection to excessive genital exams, photography and display

During these processes, intersex children are usually exposed to abusive display and repeatedly examined for training or scientific purposes, which in turn humiliates them and may cause deep psychological harm.Human Rights Commission of The City & County of San Francisco, A Human Rights Investigation into the Medical “Normalization” of Intersex People, 28 April 2005, pp. 31, 43; Advocates for Informed Choice (Tamar-Mattis, Anne), Report to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: Medical Treatment of People with Intersex Conditions as a Human Rights Violations, 2013, p. 5.

Lack of access to medical records

Intersex persons in the Americas often experience difficulties in accessing their medical records. This unavailability of medical records is another factor that hinders intersex persons’ access to judicial remedies.Council of Europe, Commissioner for Human Rights, Issue Paper, Intersex Persons, 2015, p. 51.

Human experimentation

Delayed birth registration

The “medical urgency” behind these surgeries during infancy stems from the alleged impossibility of parents, the medical community, the civil registry and society in general to accept sexual “uncertainty” because the infant cannot be easily and promptly classified as a girl or boy.

Denial of health care services or health insurance.

Lack of informed consent

These interventions are regularly carried out without the informed consent of intersex persons or that of their parents or legal guardians.Committee against Torture (CAT), Concluding observations: Germany, CAT/C/DEU/CO/5, 12 December 2011, para. 20; Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, A/HRC/22/53, 1 February 2013, para. 77; Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, A/HRC/19/41, 17 November 2011, para. 57.

State-approved medical protocols

Medical treatment of intersex persons is generally carried out according to State-approved medical protocols, and is not reported in the media or denounced by victims, families or organizations.

Invisibility and secrecy

intersex persons and their families often experience deep feelings of shame and fear; this contributes to the invisibility of, and secrecy surrounding, this subject. These negative feelings, amplified by existing societal taboos about sexuality and genitalia, are the most commonly reported reactions of intersex persons to the lengthy procedures to which they are subject.

“We live in a dichotomous society, where everything that does not fit what is considered to be the “standard male” or “standard female” is seen as something so monstrous that it cannot be tolerated. And in these cases, doctors in particular always perform these surgeries precisely to “normalize” those bodies in order for them to “fit” into this society. What they do not see in the long term are all the effects of these “normalizing” surgeries on the bodies of intersex persons.”

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Testimony by Natasha Jimenez, MULABI, IACHR, Hearing on Human Rights Situation of Intersex Persons, 15 March 2013.

The 41-year-old man sitting before you right now was once, a long time ago, a 14-year-old girl who, upon being told that she was born without a vagina or a uterus, was also told that it was necessary to cut part of her intestine in order to surgically ‘create a vagina’. The purpose of that surgery was to ensure that I would grow up to become a woman who could be penetrated by a man. The failure of this procedure is obvious and after two surgeries and six years of vaginal dilations with a piece of metal called a 'bougie,' what I can attest to as a consequence of that intervention is the transformation of the healthy teenager that I used to be into the man that I am—someone who survives every day the experience of having been raped repeatedly, while asleep on an operating table.

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The vast majority of intersex persons live confined to their homes. Families do not talk about it because everything that has to do with sexuality, everything that has to do, above all, with genitals, is something that is not discussed. It is a taboo subject.

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Testimony by Natasha Jimenez, MULABI, IACHR, Hearing on Human Rights Situation of Intersex Persons, 15 March 2013.

Twenty six years ago a team of medical professionals discovered that I had 'XY' chromosomes and internal testes, more commonly referred to today as 'partial androgen insensitivity syndrome.' Immediately after that, a surgery was scheduled to remove those internal testes, I was one then. When I was three, another surgery was performed. This time, it was to reduce the size of my clitoris, which was judged to be 'half a centimeter too long.' Then, when I was eleven and entering puberty, I underwent a third surgery. This time was to construct a 'more acceptable' vagina via the method called 'vaginoplasty.' I was lied to and told that I had cancerous ovaries and that the doctors were saviors, and had saved me.

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Testimony by Jen Pigeon Pagonis, IACHR, Hearing on Human Rights Situation of Intersex Persons, 147th Period of Sessions, March 15, 2013.

Chilean organizations have reported that in 2003, a 20-year-old man discovered through a series of medical tests that just after his birth, the doctor who had been authorized by his parents to treat an inguinal hernia had in fact removed the child’s testicles and operated on his genitals.

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Global Rights, IGLHRC, MOVILH, Organización de Transexuales Masculino, Violations of the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Persons in Chile: A Shadow Report, 2008, p. 12.

In regards to Intersex persons, the IACHR notes that

  • the principle of free, prior and informed consent is of utmost importance and must be the guiding principle in every decision made in relation to surgeries, procedures, hormone treatments, or any other medical treatment of intersex persons.
  • involuntary sterilization of intersex persons represents a serious human rights violation.
  • The surgeries and other medical interventions that are not necessaries according to medical criterions must be postpone until intersex persons could decide by themselves.
  • States do not collect dataes"" about the prevalence of these surgeries and the rest of medical interventions made on intersex persons, which makes the problem invisible and prevents an effective approach
  • States do not collect data about the prevalence of these surgeries and the rest of medical interventions made on intersex persons, which makes the problem invisible and prevents an effective approach
  • States must provide adequate treatment and support to intersex persons and their families; create multidisciplinary groups to provide support and counseling to parents and relatives of intersex children and infants and to provide care and support to intersex persons from childhood into adolescence and adulthood

"Manifestação contra Homofobia" - By Elza Fiuza/ABr [CC BY 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

Other forms of Violence in the provision of health services

Mistreatment, harassment, and even physical violence are part of the experience of LGBT persons seeking medical attention.

Lesbian, gay or bisexual
Trans and gender-nonconforming

in United States affirmed that they had experienced at least one of the following types of discrimination or aggression: Lambda Legal, When Health Care Isn’t Caring Lambda Legal’s: Survey on Discrimination Against LGBT People and People Living with HIV [Cuando el Cuidado de Salud No Es Cuidado. Encuesta de Lamda Legal sobre la Discriminación contra las personas LGBT y personas con el syndrome del VIH], 2010, p. 10.

  • being refused needed care;
  • being blamed for their health status;
  • health care professionals refusing to touch them or using excessive precautions;
  • health care professionals using harsh or abusive language; or
  • health care professionals being physically rough or abusive.

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Mauro Cabral / Natasha Jiménez / Advocates for Informed Choice / Núcleo de Pesquisa em Sexualidade e Relações de Gênero, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul / Consórcio Latino Americano de Trabalho sobre Intersexualidade

Photo Credit: Eddie Arrossi. // 147 Period of Sessions of the IACHR, Hearing: Human Rights Situation of Intersex persons in the Americas

Mauro Cabral / Natasha Jiménez / Advocates for Informed Choice / Núcleo de Pesquisa em Sexualidade e Relações de Gênero, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul / Consórcio Latino Americano de Trabalho sobre Intersexualidade

Photo Credit: Eddie Arrossi. // 147 Period of Sessions of the IACHR, Hearing: Human Rights Situation of Intersex persons in the Americas

One astounding example of denial of medical treatment was the case of Robert Eads, an American trans man who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It has been documented that at least twelve medical professionals refused to treat him because they feared that “treating this case of gender variance would hurt the reputation of their medical practices.

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Ravishankar, Mathura, “The Story About Robert Eads” in The Journal of Global Health, 18 January 2013.

Violence related to attempts to “change” sexual orientation and gender identity

Young LGBT persons are subjected to harmful so-called ‘therapies’ intended to ‘modify’ their orientation or identity.

Such therapies are unethical, unscientific and ineffective and may be tantamount to torture. Joint Statement on International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia “Discriminated and Made Vulnerable: Young LGBT and Intersex People Need Recognition and Protection of their Rights”. May 17, 2015.

The person under “treatment” is confined to a center, a boarding school or “clinic,” most times against their will or through deception, and subject to very strict regimes. These regimes usually include inhumane or degrading treatment and even sexual abuse as part of the “procedure” to attempt to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The IACHR has received information on the existence of centers for “treating” LGBT persons in Ecuador, Peru,1 the Dominican Republic,2 and the United States.

"Clínicas de deshomosexualización" in Ecuador:

"Clinics"
(Civil society estimations - between 2005 and 2014)

Taller de Comunicación Mujer, Violencia y Discriminación contra Women lesbianas en el Ecuador: Informe Sombra para la Convención sobre la Eliminación de Todas las Formas de Discriminación hacia Women (CEDAW), 2014, pág. 5.

“clinics” were shut down by the State in 2011

Respuesta al cuestionario de la CIDH sobre violencia contra personas LGBTI en América presentada por el Estado de Ecuador, Note 4-2-380/2013, recibida por la Secretaría Ejecutiva de la CIDH el 2 de diciembre de 2013, págs. 2, 9.

The IACHR recognizes the State’s efforts in this regard, and encourages it to adopt all measures necessary to prevent the existence of these centers and to investigate them, as well as to punish those responsible.

Survivors indicated that once interned, they were:

  • exposed to systematic verbal abuse, yelling, humiliation, and rape threats;
  • housed in overcrowded rooms;
  • held in isolation for long periods of time;
  • deprived of food for several days or forced to eat unsanitary food or drink water from wells infested with dead toads, cockroaches and other insects;
  • forced to “dress and behave like prostitutes to learn feminine behavior”
  • and have sexual relations with other male interns by order of their “therapists;”
  • kept in handcuffs for more than three months or
  • chained to toilets that were being used by other persons;
  • awakened with cold water buckets or urine being thrown on them;
  • subjected to electroshock therapy;
  • and touched, molested and even raped by custodial personnel.

Victims are extremely reluctant officially report these brutal acts to the autorities, among other, because:

  • family members were involved in the abductions,
  • law enforcement officials were involved in the wrongdoing and victims feared reprisals,
  • lack of protections for those who report these crimes and a pervasive perception of impunity,
  • the perpetrators were able to obtain written “consent” from the victims, and the victims believed that the existence of these documents precluded their possibilities of seeking justice.

Violence motivated by religion

Sometimes attacks against LGBT persons are religiously motivated, particularly attacks targeting young gay men

For example, in Brazil, three men attacked a 19-year-old gay man. Two of the men punched the victim repeatedly while the third prayed for the victim to be saved from his “sins.” One of the attackers then wrapped the victim’s arm in a cloth and set it on fire. The attackers allegedly abandoned the victim with a note in his pocket that read: “the fire of purification was set upon he who declared his bestial lover.”O Tempo, “Homossexual é agredido em ritual de ‘purificação de gays’,” 20 September 2014; O Tempo, “Polícia investiga motivação religiosa em agressão a gay,” 26 September 2014.
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In the United States, five members of an evangelical church were charged with the kidnapping and assault of a young gay man. According to available information, the victim stated that the attack “was meant to rid him of homosexual demonsDaily News, “Indictment for 5 members of North Carolina’s Word of Faith Fellowship for alleged 2013 attack on gay man,” 11 December 2014. tweet this

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Photo: Duiren Wagua Lopez, Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

Photo Credit: Duiren Wagua Lopez

Photo: María Ramos Mogollón, Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

Photo Credit: María Ramos Mogollón

Photo: Guillermo Fabrizio Calle Corzo, Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

Photo Credit: Guillermo Fabrizio Calle Corzo

Clara was waiting to go home with her parents when three men approached her, grabbed her by her hands and told her that “anything she said could be used against her.” Clara demanded to see an arrest warrant, but the men instead threw her into a car and tried to handcuff her. Clara’s mother approached the car and told the men not to handcuff her. During the ride, Clara realized she was being “arrested” by her own family. She was in the backseat held at gunpoint by two men, each holding one of her legs. Minutes later they arrived at the “Julio Endara” psychiatric hospital. Clara saw her father and one of the men talking to a hospital guard. She was taken to a room where a female doctor injected a sedative which made her feel numb and incapable of reacting. She was then taken to a “clinic” in Chone, in the Ecuadorian province of Manabí, where she was locked up.

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Taller de Comunicación Mujer, Violencia y Discriminación contra mujeres lesbianas en el Ecuador: Informe Sombra para la Convención sobre la Eliminación de Todas las Formas de Discriminación hacia Mujeres (CEDAW), 2014, p. 10.

Hate speech and the incitement to violence against LGBTI persons

Violence against LGBTI persons in the region is fueled by the dissemination of “hate speech” targeted at this community in different contexts, including through public debate, manifestations against events organized by LGBTI persons, such as pride parades, the media and the internet.

Evidence shows that when crimes against LGBTI persons occur, they are frequently preceded by a context of heightened dehumanization and discrimination.

The IACHR reiterates that the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of expression should coincide with efforts to combat intolerance, discrimination, hate speech, and incitement to violence.

Article 13 of the American Convention encompasses the right to express one’s own sexual orientation and gender identity and that this kind of expression enjoys a special level of protection under Inter-American instruments, because it conveys an integral element of personal identity and dignity.IACHR. Annual Report 2009. Annual Report of the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression. Chapter III (Inter-American Legal Framework of the Right to Freedom of Expression). OEA/Ser.L/V/II. Doc. 51. December 30, 2009. Paras. 54-57; I/A Court H. R., Case of López-Álvarez v. Honduras. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of February 1, 2006. Series C No. 141. para. 169.

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The importance of the right to freedom of expression

in guaranteeing the right to equality of members of groups that have suffered from historical discrimination.

is key in the redress by vulnerable groups of “the balance of power among the components of society.”

is useful in promoting intercultural understanding and tolerance, deconstructing stereotypes, facilitating the free exchange of ideas, and offering alternative views and counterpoints

The formal rejection of hate speech by high-level public officials and the condemnation of hateful ideas expressed can work as a preventive measure to combat incitement to violence and discrimination.

Preventive mechanisms could include: education to promote understanding and combat negative stereotypes and discrimination against LGBTI persons, including programs aimed at schoolchildren and informational campaigns; training for law enforcement agents and those involved in the administration of justice on the prohibition of hate speech and incitement to violence; and data collection and analysis in relation to freedom of expression and hate speech.

Intersectionality of violence against LGBTI persons

When lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex persons are victims of violence, their actual experiences of such violence are very diverse.

This diversity is a result of differing personal circumstances and characteristics, and in particular, the existence of certain factors that make some LGBTI persons especially vulnerable to violence, or which worsen the consequences of such violence.

Muxe person in S. Agustin Etla., Oaxaca. - Photo credit: Arnaud B.

1. Indigenous Peoples

The IACHR notes that such persons might not self-identify as LGBT, and instead might self-identify with another expression of diverse sexuality, for example two-spirited, or might not discuss their gender or sexual orientation in terms that easily translate to the concept of LGBT as used in this report and elsewhere.IACHR, Public Hearing on Situation of Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Transexual, Bisexual and Intersex Indigenous Persons in the Americas, 147 Period of Sessions, 16 March 2013.

The IACHR received information on the negative impact of colonization on the ancestral sexualities and spiritualties of indigenous peoples.

According to the information provided, colonization resulted in the suppression of non-heteronormative sexualities among indigenous peoples. This had devastating consequences, including loss of acceptance of people of non-heteronormative sexualities within their own societies, self-harm, and suicide.

Photo credit: Joe Mabel - Dykes on Bikes, annual Seattle LGBT Pride parade, Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington, 1995.

2. Women

Acts of violence against women, including lesbian, bisexual and trans women, are experienced by women as manifestations of the structural and historical sexism and inequality between men and women.

Lesbian Women

Lesbian women are at particular risk for violence because of misogyny and gender inequality in society, but there is significant underreporting of violence against lesbian women.

Lesbian women are “victims of ‘corrective rape’ or rape targeted to punish them, in an effort to ‘change’ their sexual orientation; collective beatings for public display of affection; attacks with acid; and forcib[le] commit[ment] to centers that offer to ‘convert’ their sexual orientation.IACHR Annex to the Press Release 153, An Overview of Violence against LGBTI Persons in the Americas: a Registry Documenting Acts of Violence between January 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014

In the United States, the following percentage of people said that at least once in their lives, they have been victims of rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner: IACHR Annex to the Press Release 153, An Overview of Violence against LGBTI Persons in the Americas: a Registry Documenting Acts of Violence between January 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014

bisexual
women
lesbian
women
heterosexual
women

The IACHR emphasizes that under the Convention of Belem do Para, States have the obligation to prevent, punish and eradicate all forms of violence against women, including lesbian, bisexual, trans, and intersex women.

Trans women

Violence against trans persons, particularly trans women, is the result of a combination of factors: exclusion, discrimination and violence within the family, schools, and society at large; lack of recognition of their gender identity; involvement in occupations that puts them at a higher risk for violence; and high criminalization.

The IACHR has expressed concern about the young age of trans victims:

Life expentacy of trans women according to Latin American organizations
% of trans women killed were 35 years of ager or younger, Registry of Violence

There are certain specific acts of violence present in many cases of attacks against trans women:

  • beatings targeted at the breasts;
  • the puncturing of silicone breast implants, which causes the implants to leak toxic substances into the body;
  • and genital mutilation, including even post-mortem castration.
Trans women putting on make up

Photo Credit: Teresa Bracamonte Novella, Perú. Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

Trans Women from Mexico

Photo Credit: DOscar Ulloa Calzada, México. Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

Trans woman in a protest in Argentina

Photo Credit: Teresa Bracamonte Novella, Perú. Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

Trans woman in Carnival

Photo Credit: Candela Reinares, Argentina. Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

Public Hearing: Human Rights Situation of lesbian women in the Americas

Public Hearing: Human Rights Situation of lesbian women in the Americas - 147 Período de sesiones - Photo Credit: Eddie Arrossi

A young afro-descendant woman who, after telling her father at the age of 11 that she was a lesbian, the woman was allegedly subjected to rape by her father’s friends during a 14-year period, which resulted in five children. After she managed to escape, she was then raped several times at the hands of illegal armed groups, often in front of her partners as a punishment for her sexual orientation. She has been consequently internally displaced several times in Colombia.

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IACHR, Press Release No. 118/14, “IACHR Chair Concludes visit to Colombia,” October 10, 2014.

In Ecuador, a man shot his wife in her back and neck, saying that he did this because he thought she was a lesbian. The woman survived but was left permanently disabled and in charge of her five children.

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El Diario, “Marido le disparó tras acusarla de ser lesbiana”, 28 February 2013.

In Chile, a young lesbian woman was repeatedly physically attacked and stabbed by the male relatives of her ex-girlfriend.

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OTD Organización de Transexuales por la Dignidad de la Diversidad (OTD) & International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), Violaciones de derechos humanos de las personas lesbianas, bisexuales y transexuales (LBT): Un informe sombra, September 2012, p. 8; EMOL, “PDI detiene a supuestos implicados en brutal golpiza a joven lesbiana”, 20 July 2012; Biobio Chile, “Joven de 16 años sufrió brutal agresión en Santa Juana: Acusan discriminación por ser lesbiana”, 19 July 2012.

In Peru, a woman tried to defend her girlfriend from an attack by her brother that was prompted by their same-sex relationship. As a result she suffered machete wounds on her face, head and neck.

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In 2009 in Peru, a trans woman sex worker named Techi Paredes was shaved bald and told to jump like a frog while being beaten with clubs by members of neighborhood councils. It was reported that one of the neighbors leading the attack declared: “[w]e are giving them exemplary punishment and we are determined to eradicate them.

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Red Peruana de Trans, Lesbianas Gays y Bisexuales & Centro de Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos (PROMSEX), Informe Anual sobre Derechos Humanos de personas Trans, Lesbianas, Gays y Bisexuales en el Perú 2009, 2010, pp. 57, 58, 98; International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), Latin American Trans Women Living in Extreme Poverty, June 2009, p. 8

in 2009, a group of residents in a neighborhood of the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is reported to have distributed flyers advocating the “elimination” of trans women from the neighborhood. This group referred to themselves as “an anonymous group who decided to go to war with these men dressed as women.” Trans women in the area have reported suffering attacks with eggs, stones and bottles.

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3. Persons in the context of human mobility

Persons in the context of human mobility, such as migrants and their families, asylum seekers, refugees, stateless persons, victims of human trafficking, internally displaced persons, among others, are vulnerable to human rights violations. Within this group, LGBT persons are extremely vulnerable to violence and discrimination.

In many cases, the discrimination and violence faced by LGBT persons due to their sexual orientation and gender identity is what forces them to migrate.

Refugee claims based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity are most commonly analyzed under the grounds of “membership of a particular social group”. International frameworks on asylum do not take into account the specific circumstances of LGBT persons, and that the requirements and level of evidence required for refugee or asylum seekers are often unachievable for LGBT persons.

The adjudicators of refugee status must not rely on stereotypical assumptions of LGBT persons:UNCHR, Guidelines on International Protection No. 9: Claims to Refugee Status based on Sexual Orientation and/or Gender Identity within the context of Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, 21 de noviembre de 2008.

  • that all gay men are effeminate;
  • qthat if a lesbian woman or gay man had previously been in a different sex relationship, including marriage and having children, that he or she is not truly lesbian or gay;
  • that bisexual persons must be attracted to both sexes at the same time or an equal attraction to both men and women, among others;
  • not all trans persons choose medical treatment or modify their external appereanceand as such, it is important for officials in charge of adjudicating the refugee status to avoid overemphasis on sex-reassignment surgery.

Trans women are housed with the general male population in immigration detention centers. The IACHR has held that the decision on where to house trans persons should be done on a case by case basis, with due respect to their personal dignity, and to the extent possible, with prior consultation of the person concerned.

“After living in the U.S. for twelve years, Johanna was apprehended by ICE and placed in an all-male detention facility [where she] was beaten and sexually assaulted [...] Unable to bear the conditions of her detention, she elected to self-deport. Life in El Salvador quickly became too dangerous for her and she attempted to return to the U.S. She crossed the border illegally and was apprehended by the Border Patrol. [... She] was sent to an all-male federal prison and was held in solitary confinement for seven months before being deported back to El Salvador for a second time [where] she was kidnapped and gang-raped. [...] the police, they refused to help her and suggested that the men should have killed her. Soon after this, she fled to the U.S. for a third time and was once again arrested [...] and imprisoned...”

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4. Children and Youth

Children who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex, or who are seen as such, face stigma, discrimination and violence because of their perceived or actual sexual orientation and gender identity, or because their bodies differ from typical definitions of female or male.

According to UNICEF, the range of this discrimination and violence includes:

There are cases in which parents or other family members exert physical violence against children because they perceive them as gender non-conforming, lesbian, gay, or bisexual. The intent of this violence is to “correct” the children, a brutal method referred to as “beating the gay out/away.

The authority of the family does not entitle it to exercise arbitrary control over a child where such exercise of control could pose a threat to the minor’s health or development.

Violence that takes place in educational environments

“LGBT children are often bullied by classmates and teachers, resulting in some students dropping out. They may even be refused school admission or expelled on the basis of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.”Joint statement marking the 2015 International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, the IACHR, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN human rights experts and other regional experts, “Ante discriminación y vulneración de sus derechos, jóvenes LGBT e intersex necesitan reconocimiento y protección,” 17 de mayo de 2015.

Students reported having being physically harassed or assaulted because of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, in Canada:Eagle Canada Human Rights Trust, Every Class in Every School: Final Report on the First National Climate Survey on Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia in Canadian Schools.

Trans
Students
Lesbian gay,
bisexual students

Bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity involve:

  • relentless teasing, name-calling, and verbal abuse which escalated to more severe attacks, including: repeated molestation or touching of the victim’s genitals while the perpetrators hurled derogatory epithets;
  • dragging the victim behind a pickup truck with a lasso around the victim’s neck;
  • punching, kicking, and throwing the victim into a urinal;
  • spraying water and dumping hot melted cheese on the victim’s head;
  • urination and mock rape;
  • throwing bottles and pushing the victim down the stairs;
  • continuously shoving the victim into lockers and spiting on the victim;
  • and continuous harassment culminating in a sexual assault in the school locker-room;
  • among others.

For instance, the State of Argentina informed the IACHR that a local survey estimated that trans women:Response to the IACHR Questionnaire on Violence against LGBTI Persons in the Americas submitted by the State of Argentina, Note 96357/2013, dated 29 November 2013, received by IACHR Executive Secretariat on 13December 2013, p. 16.

had been
unable to finish
primary studies
had been
unable to finish
secondary school
had been
víctims
of violence

If bullying is tolerated, a strong social message is sent to LGBT persons that the open expression of their orientations or identities is not accepted.

Extreme examples include: a mother torturing and murdering her 4-year-old son because she perceived him to be gay; a father brutally attacking and humiliating his 16-year-old son, tying the child’s feet to a pickup truck and threatening to drag him down the street because of his sexual orientation; a sister continuously humiliating and attacking her 15 year old brother, including throwing urine on him, because he was gay (aggressions which eventually lead to the boys’ suicide); a father setting his son on fire because he discovered he was gay and HIV positive; and a brother brutally attacking his brother and threatening to kill him because he was gay.

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Find the references in the report

In Haiti, a young man who, when he came out to his family, was attacked with a machete and beaten by his brother. When he went to the police, they told him that his brother was right to beat him if he was gay. Allegedly the police then declined to record his complaint and investigate.

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Response to the IACHR Questionnaire on Violence against LGBTI Persons in the Americas submitted by Madre, ILGHRC, Cuny School of Law, SEROVie and FACSDIS, (Haiti), received by the IACHR Executive Secretariat on 25 November 2013, p. 2.

In Guyana a civil society organization was contacted when a father threw his gay 13-year old boy out of his home and threatened to kill him. The Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) intervened and placed the child with his grandmother. The father was able to continue the abuse and harassment; there was no effective legal intervention in this case.

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Red Thread, Artistes In Direct Support (A.I.D.S.), Family Awareness Conscious Together (FACT) & Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD), Sexuality and Gender Issues Affecting Children in Guyana: A Joint Submission under the Convention of the Rights of the Child, January 2013, p. 7.

In 2014, an U.S.-based organization announced that it was proving legal aid to a conversion therapy survivor who alleges that “shortly after coming out in 1996, his parents turned to the local church, which ran a school it promised could “cure” him and “stop him from being gay.” According to the victim, a teacher began subjecting him to weekly “counseling” sessions in which he regularly raped the teenager to convince him that being gay was more painful than suppressing his sexual orientation.

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In a case reported in Peru, the headmaster of the school publicly announced that he would “initiate an investigation” to find out if two male students were in a relationship, in order to have them expelled from the institution to “preserve the school’s prestige and reputation.

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Red Peruana de Trans, Lesbianas Gays y Bisexuales & Centro de Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos (PROMSEX), Informe Anual sobre Derechos Humanos de personas Trans, Lesbianas, Gays y Bisexuales en el Perú 2008, 2009, p. 60;

Photo credit: florafotos on Flickr

5. Human Rights Defenders

The work of human rights defenders is fundamental for the universal implementation of human rights, and for the full existence of democracy and the rule of law.

Las defensoras y los Human Rights Defenders LGBTI puede que enfrenten riesgos mayores porque su trabajo desafía las estructuras sociales, las prácticas tradicionales y la interpretación de preceptos religiosos que pueden haber sido utilizados por históricamente para condonar y justificar la violación de los derechos humanos de los miembros de dichos grupos.Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, A/56/156, 3 July 2001, para. 25; Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights defenders, E/CN.4/2001/94, 26 January 2001, para. 89(g).

LGBTI human rights defenders suffer such violence as a consequence of their situation of triple vulnerability:

  • persons who identify as LGBT are already vulnerable because of their sexuality, sexual orientation and/or gender identity
  • because of their role as human rights defenders and
  • because of the specific causes that they champion.

Among the most vulnerable to this severe violence are trans women who are human rights defenders and who also engage in sex work.

Public officials must refrain from making statements that stigmatize human rights defenders or that suggest that human rights organizations act improperly or illegally, merely because they engage in the work of promoting and protecting human rights.

In 2004, Brian Williamson, co-founder of the organization Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-sexuals and Gays (J-Flag), was found murdered in his home. He was stabbed 70 times and his body was mutilated. Within an hour after the discovery of his body, a Human Rights Watch researcher witnessed a crowd gather outside his home, some of the members of which were reportedly chanting, “that’s what you get for sin,” and “let’s kill all of them.

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Amongst the most notorious cases in Honduras is the killing of 27-year-old Walter Trochez in December 2009. Trochez was a human rights defender who had given testimony to the IACHR three months prior to his death, during the Commission’s 2009 onsite visit, and who had, following the coup d’état, begun compiling information on the killings of LGBT persons in Honduras. A few days prior to his killing, he had allegedly been kidnapped by four masked men in civilian clothes who beat him, ordered him to divulge the names and addresses of other activists, and told him we have orders to kill you”.

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Huffington Post, “The Murder of Walter Trochez: Political Violence and Impunity in Honduras,” 13 de diciembre de 2010, y CIDH, Observaciones preliminares de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos sobre su visita a Honduras,  15 al 18 de mayo 2010, párr.53.

On February 14, 2007, in Kingston, a group of gay men including gay-rights activist Gareth Williams were stoned by a mob of over 2,000 people when they were shopping in a mall. The police failed to arrest anyone for the attack and instead took the gay men into custody and subsequently abused them even as they sought to secure them from the mob.

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Regional Meeting of LGBTI Activists from CARICOM, The Unnatural Connexion: Creating Social Conflict Through Legal Tools, Laws Criminalizing Same-Sex Sexual Behaviors and Identities and Their Human Rights Impact In Caribbean Countries, 2010, Report submitted to the IACHR in November 2010, p.31.

LGBT organizations in the Colombian Caribbean affirm that “the higher the visibility, the greater the risk." They say that LGBTI persons are showing increasing leadership in the Caribbean region of Colombia and that this visibility in defense of LGBTI rights has prompted a backlash of even more violence on the part of actors in the armed conflict.

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Corporación Caribe Afirmativo, información escrita presentada en la Hearing ante la CIDH “Denuncias sobre violencia contra personas LGBTI en el Caribe colombiano,” celebrada el 27 de octubre de 2014.

7. Afro-descendant persons and other persons who are affected by racial discrimination

The IACHR has received troubling information concerning the high levels of discrimination and violence against afro-descendant lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) persons in the Americas.

LGBTQ persons of color are more likely to experience violence perpetrated by their intimate partners (according to a research conducted in the United States).National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, Media Alert, An Open Letter from LGBTQ Organizations in the United States Regarding the Epidemic Violence that LGBTQ People, Particularly Transgender Women of Color, Have Experienced in 2015, 1 de marzo de 2015.

Trans persons of color are six times more likely to experience physical violence at the hands of the police, when compared to white cisgender persons in United Stated. National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, A Report of Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Queer, and HIV-Affected Hate Violence in 2013, 2014, p. 10.

Mujer sosteniendo bandera que dice: 'Born This Way', nací de esta manera.

Photo Credit: Kevin Prichard en Flickr

Photo Credit: Seattle City Council from Seattle. 2015 LGBT Pride Parade, 26 de junio de 2015

Peticionaria de la audiencia: KizzyAnn Abraham, GrenChap

Photo Credit: Daniel Cima. 156 Período Ordinario de Sesiones, audiencia sobre Grenada: Criminalización relaciones personas mismo sexo

Out of the killing of LGBTQ persons in 2014:

persons of
color
trans women

In 2011, self-identification of the LGBT victims of violence in Brazil:

Afro-descendants

(pretos and pardos)

white persons

The Commission was informed of the case of “Alias el Oso,” a member of a Colombian paramilitary group, who ordered the torture of gay men, especially those who were “effeminate”, and of Afro-descendants. The torture was to be carried out in the homes of the victims, and was intended to terrorize the population. The victims were subsequently forced to leave their communities.

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IACHR, Hearing on Reports of Violence against LGBTI Persons in the Caribbean Region of Colombia, 153rd Period of Sessions, 27 October 2014.

154 Period of Sessions of the IACHR - Hearing: Situación de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales de Personas Trans - De izquierda a derecha peticionarias de la Hearing: Yren Rotela (REDLACTRANS); Marcela Romero (REDLACTRANS); Gabriela Redondo (REDLACTRANS) - Photo Credit: Daniel Cima

8. Persons Living in Poverty

LGBT persons often face poverty, social exclusion, and high rates of homelessness. LGBT persons are expelled from their families and schools and in some instances cannot even obtain jobs paying minimum wage. This pushes them into the informal economy or into criminal activity.Spade, Dean. Interview by Laura Flanders, The Laura Flanders Show, GRITTV, 2015.

In Latin America, discrimination and structural exclusion in the labor market, based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, is one of the triggers that “sets into motion an endless cycle of continued poverty.”Cabral, Mauro and Hoffman, Johanna. International Gay and Lesbian Humans Rights Commission, They Asked Me How I Was Living/Surviving, I said, surviving: Latin America Trans Women Living in Extreme Poverty, 2009, p. 6.

Some LGBT persons in such situations engage in sex work, or in survival sex, which is the exchange of sex for money, food, shelter, or other material goods needed for survival.

Regardless of socio-economic origins, a large number of trans women who are thrown out of their family homes at an early age end up among the high number of trans women who are severely impoverished most of their lives.Cabral, Mauro and Hoffman, Johanna. International Gay and Lesbian Humans Rights Commission, They Asked Me How I Was Living/Surviving, I said, surviving: Latin America Trans Women Living in Extreme Poverty, 2009, p. 5.

It is reported that homelessness among LGBT persons “is almost always the result of discrimination or violence.” LGBT persons are displaced from their homes, families, communities, and sometimes their country, by their families, landlords, and neighbors.J-FLAG, (re)Presenting and Redressing LGBT Homelessness in Jamaica: Towards a Multifaceted Approach to Addressing Anti-Gay Related Displacement, 2014, p. 2.

When intersex persons are born into impoverished families or to parents lacking access to formal education, the power imbalance that is normally present in the doctor-patient relationship tends to be exacerbated, with a consequent negative impact on intersex persons’ right to informed consent. Alcántara Z., Eva. Pobreza y Condición Intersexual en México: Reflexiones y Preguntas en Torno al Dispositivo Médico, Córdoba, Mejico: Anarres Editorial, 2009, p 16-30.

Taken by Duiren Wagua López, Panamá, Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

Taken by Duiren Wagua López, Panamá, Concurso Mujeres en Igualdad “Género y diversidad sexual”

trans women in Latin America and the Caribbean are engaged in sex work as their only means of subsistenceRedlactrans, Report on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights if Transgender Population of Latin America and the Caribbean, presentado en una Hearing pública del 154 Period of Sessions de la CIDH, March 16, 2015. Hearing requested by Redlactrans.
of the homeless youth living on the streets in New York City identify as LGBTFunders for Lesbian and Gay Issues, Out for Change: Racial and Economic Justice Issues in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Communities, 2005, p. 10.
trans sex work reported being homelessConner, Brendan; Banuelos, Isela; Dank, Meredith; Madden, Kuniko; Mitchyll, Mora; Ritchie, Andrea; Yahner, Jennifer; Yu, Lilly. Urban Institute, Surviving the Streets of New York: Experiences of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Engaged in Survival Sex, 2015, p. 7. Citing Grant, Jaime M., Lisa A. Mottet, Justin Tanis, Jack Harrison, Jody L. Herman, and Mara Keisling. Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, Washington, DC: National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 2011

The prevalence in Latin America of informal and risky sex reassignment procedures causes a high number of (preventable) deaths of trans women.Cabral, Mauro and Hoffman, Johanna. International Gay and Lesbian Humans Rights Commission, They Asked Me How I Was Living/Surviving, I said, surviving: Latin America Trans Women Living in Extreme Poverty, 2009, p. 5.

One study conducted in Bogotá, Colombia showed in relation to reassigment procedures: Pachón, N. E. and Cruz, K. J. Uso De Modelantes Estéticos, Como Proceso De La Trasformación Corporal De Women Transgeneristas, Bogotá, 2013. Obtenido de Tábula Rasa: Revista de Humanidades.

resorted to informal providers
interventions in the house of a friend
in garages or unlicensed private “clinics”
had more than one procedure

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