Complaints of homo and transphobia fall in Chile for the first time in eight years

Santiago, Chile, 23 Mar Complaints of homo and transphobia in Chile fell by 12% in 2021, the first decline since eight years ago, which coincides with the recent approval of marriage equality, LGBTI activists reported Thursday. In its annual report, the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh), one of Chile's most influential LGBTI associations, indicated that 1,114 complaints or cases of discrimination were recorded last year, including three murders and 78 physical assaults. Of the total number of complaints, 19% affected gays, 13.2% lesbians, 11.4% trans and 56.4% affected LGBTI population as a whole, according to the 20th Annual Report on Human Rights on Gender Sexual Diversity. Hate campaigns fell by 80%, followed by educational discrimination (-63%), murders (-50%), homo/transphobia in the family or neighbourhoods (-46.6%) and physical or verbal aggressions (-40.9%), while institutional discrimination rose by 3.1% and hate speech increased by 47.8%. “The rise was due to the systematic discussion of norms for LGBTI rights in the National Congress; which was rejected by anti-rights groups,” Movilh explained. At the institutional level, the institutions that lead the ranking of homophobia are the ultra-conservative Independent Democratic Union (UDI) party, the Gendarmerie, the Navy or the police force of the Carabineros, the document added. “30 YEARS OF STRUGGLE” For Movilh, last year's big milestone was the adoption in December of a law allowing same-sex marriage, which meant “the closing of a long chapter of 30 years of struggle.” “2021 is the year when the LGBTI cause closed the most difficult chapter in its history, which went from the total rejection of the State and society to any hint of diverse sexual orientations or gender identities to an openness that recognizes rights to all families,” the association said. Chile thus became the eighth country in Latin America to approve this right after Costa Rica, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and several states in Mexico. The bill was introduced in 2017 thanks to the encouragement of former socialist president Michelle Bachelet (2014-2018), but it was stuck for almost four years in Parliament. In a surprising turn, former conservative president Sebastián Piñera said last year that the “time had come” to approve it and instructed Parliament to discuss it as a matter of urgency, which dispatched it in just six months. “An unjustifiable delay that only came to an end because a right-wing president decided to push marriage. It's a paradox, everywhere you look at it,” said the study. In addition to allowing marriage, the new law recognizes the filial rights of both parents over their children, allows homopaternal adoption, eliminates homosexuality as a ground for wrongful divorce and recognizes unions contracted abroad. “With the adoption of equal marriage, only one explicitly homophobic law came into force in Chile: Article 365 of the Penal Code, whose repeal is also late,” Movilh warned, referring to a rule that establishes different ages of sexual consent for homosexuals (18 years) and heterosexuals (14). CHIEF mmm/cpy