It Is Spreading! To South America

South America, I’ve written a lot about Europe regressing but down in South America there are also going backward.

Peru classifies transgender identities as 'mental health problems' in new law
Protesters pushed back against the Peruvian Health Ministry’s new gender identity classifications, which contradict the World Health Organization’s guidance.
NBC News
By Joe Kottke
May 20, 2024

LGBTQ advocates in Peru protested in the capital city of Lima last week after the Health Ministry issued a new law that deemed transgender people as having “mental health problems.”

The supreme decree, signed by Peruvian President Dina Boluarte and published May 10, updated the ministry’s list of insurable mental health conditions to include “transexualism,” “gender identity disorders” and “cross-dressing.”

In 2019, the World Health Organization redefined its terms on gender identity-related health, moving conditions of “gender incongruence” out of being defined as “mental and behavioral disorders” and into the “conditions related to sexual health” category.

“This reflects current knowledge that trans-related and gender diverse identities are not conditions of mental ill-health, and that classifying them as such can cause enormous stigma,” the guidance reads.

They have taken a page out of the Republican playbook. The conservative Daily Mail writes,

Trans people are officially classified as 'mentally ill' in Peru, sparking fury among LGBT groups
The decree was signed by Peruvian President Dina Boluarte and Health Minister
By David Averre
15 May 2024

Peru has officially classified trans people as 'mentally ill'.

Under the decree signed by President Dina Boluarte, 'transsexualism, dual-role transvestism, gender identity disorder in childhood, other gender identity disorders and fetishistic transvestism' are now all recorded as mental illnesses.

The move, which comes just days before the 34-year anniversary of the World Health Organisation's removal of homosexuality from the list of International Classification of Diseases (ICD), has prompted fury from rights groups.

The WHO also removed transsexuality from its disease manual in 2019 when a new version of the ICD was proposed and came into effect in 2022.

The right-wing conservatives do not care about what the medical profession thinks, they only want to push their agenda.

Speaking on the latest decree, Percy Mayta-Tristan, a medical researcher at Lima's Scientific University of the South, said it revealed a lack of awareness of complex LGBT issues.

'You can't ignore the context that this is happening in a super-conservative society, where the LGBT community has no rights and where labelling them as mentally ill opens the door to conversion therapy,' he told Yahoo News.

Meanwhile other South American nations are torn between democracy and dictatorship.

THE WORLDWIDE OFFENSIVE AGAINST THE RIGHTS OF THE LGBTQ+ COMMMUNITY
The community, which is celebrating International Pride Day, has been hit by both the rise of the far right and hate speech in democratic countries and by the wave of religious extremism in authoritarian regimes
El Pais
SILVIA BLANCOANDREA GARCÍA BAROJA
JUNE 28, 2023

Whenever the rights of LGBTQ+ people move forward in the world, be it with laws that recognize same-sex marriage or the administrative identity of trans people, there is backlash, to a greater or lesser degree. The historical struggle of the LGBTQ+ community, which today celebrates Pride Day, is full of advances and setbacks, but now that dynamic is rapidly going backwards. And it is happening all over the world.

The offensive can be clearly seen in several countries of the European Union, fueled by a far right that has found that attacks on LGBTQ+ rights can be a powerful electoral and ideological tool. This is the case in Hungary and Poland, where there are doubts about the administrations’ democratic rigor, and in Italy, where the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni is seeking to block the legal recognition of families with same-sex parents. Spain, which has been consolidating LGBTQ+ rights for almost two decades, recently approved one of the most progressive laws to protect the LGBTQ+ community, but the so-called trans law is now under attack by the conservative Popular Party (PP) and far-right Vox, which have put it in the spotlight ahead of the general elections on July 23.

[…]

Equality on paper, hate and murders in the street
BY ALMUDENA BARRAGÁN, MEXICO CITY
In the last two decades, Latin America has made steady progress in recognizing the rights of LGBTQ+ people. However, what has been achieved through legislative and judicial channels has not translated into less violence, homophobia and transphobia. On the contrary, these manifestations of hate have been on the rise. Between 2014 and 2021, around 3,961 LGBTQ+ people were murdered in the region, according to Sin Violencia LGBTI, which brings together organizations from 11 countries in the region. The progress of laws on paper has not materialized in on-the-ground changes in the region, which is traditional and historically conservative. While some Latin American countries have taken steps forward, there have also been setbacks as a result of backlash from conservative groups, churches and right-wing governments. This, for example, has led to the rise of so-called “conversion therapies.”

[…]

COLOMBIA
Rising discrimination amid general violence
BY JUAN ESTEBAN LEWIN, BOGOTÁ
In Colombia, the LGBTQ+ population has been caught in the crosshairs of the resurgence of the armed conflict. The South American country — where at least 148 LGBTQ+ people were murdered in 2022, according to the organization SinViolencia LGBTI — has seen a comeback in armed groups and a rise in conflicts in many states. And that violence puts LGBTQ+ people at greater risk. The community has been targeted by different groups for decades, regardless of the changes in the armed conflict in Colombia. This time is no different. Marcela Sánchez, executive director of the NGO Colombia Diversa, explains: “Between the FARC and the other groups, the only difference is in intensity. Everyone uses discrimination for control and to gain advantage.” What’s more, these tactics have intensified in recent months. For example, the paramilitaries of the so-called Clan del Golfo, also known as Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia , have increased their control in the towns of the Colombian Caribbean. Through murder, extortion and violence, the paramilitary group seeks to “impose order” — a goal that in the past has ended in acts of violence against the LGBTQ+ population.

[…]

BRAZIL
More visibility, more attacks from the far right
BY NAIARA GALARRAGA GORTÁZAR, SÃO PAULO
Brazil can be considered a kind of paradise for trans people, while still being hell for the community, with more than 1,700 deaths in 14 years. For more than a decade, Brazil has had the highest official number of murders of trans people. At the same time, however, the trans community in Brazil has much greater visibility compared to many countries. In the last elections, two trans activists — Duda Salabert and Erika Hilton — were even elected to the Chamber of Deputies. But the LGBTQ+ community is also a victim of lethal violence.

[…]

In addition to violent intolerance and machismo, there are other factors that help explain why Brazil is at the top of the list: the visibility and growing empowerment of the LGBTQ+ community, a large population of 210 million, and general violence, with 40,000 murders a year. In Brazil, as in the rest of the world, the vast majority of trans victims are women who were forced into sex work due to the lack of opportunities.

Our rights are a two edge sword, the more rights we demand, the more the conservatives push back in fear that we are somehow taking away their rights. They believe that it is their sacred right to discriminate against people that they don’t like.