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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) people in Puerto Rico have gained some legal rights in recent years. Same sex relationships have been legal in Puerto Rico since 2003, and same-sex marriage and adoptions are also permitted. U.S. federal hate crime laws apply in Puerto Rico.
In recent years, numerous LGBT people have been murdered with some laying the blame for these acts on politicians and on the religious community. [1]
The dismembered body of 19-year-old college student Jorge Steven López Mercado was discovered 14 November 2009 in Cayey, a city located in the island's interior region. López was widely known as a volunteer for organizations advocating gay rights and HIV prevention, and activists planned remembrance vigils for him in cities including San Juan, Chicago, and New York. According to local police, it is under investigation as a possible hate crime, under the newly approved U.S. Federal hate crimes law which includes crimes against people who are (or perceived to be) gay or transgender people. Juan A. Martinez Matos was arrested a few days after López Mercado's body was discovered. [2] On 12 May 2010, Martinez Matos pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the murder of López Mercado. [3]
On 19 April 2010, the body of Ashley Santiago, a transgender woman who resided in the town of Corozal was discovered in the kitchen of her home. Santiago, a stylist at a local salon, was found naked on the floor and was stabbed 14 times by an unknown assailant. [4]
On 13 September 2010, the bodies of Justo Luis "Michelle" Gonzalez and Miguel Orlando "La Flaca" Soto, two transsexuals were found murdered along a road in the small town of Juana Diaz. [5] With these two deaths, LGBT activists on the island have stated that nine gay and transgender people have been killed over the last 10 months on the island, and local authorities have not adequately responded to these crimes. [6] In October 2012, Malena Suarez, a transgender woman living in Carolina, was found dead at her home as a result of multiple stabbings. Her death marked the 30th anti-LGBT homicide in Puerto Rico in a decade. [7]
In February 2020, Alexa Negrón Luciano, a homeless trans woman was shot to death in a murder filmed by the perpetrators. The victim previously was misgendered at a restaurant by customers that falsely accused her of attempting to take photos of other women, resulting in the arrival of police. [8] The murder of Alexa highlighted the discrimination and violence transgender people face on the island. [9] [10] A year after her murder authorities had still not solved the case. [11] [12] The murder of Michelle Ramos Vargas in September of that same year marked the sixth killing of a transgender person. [13] [14] From 2019 - 2021, at least twelve transgender people had been murdered in Puerto Rico. [15]
In 1973 the Comunidad de Orgullo Gay (the Gay Pride Community) was the first gay rights organization in Puerto Rico. In 1991, the Coalición Puertorriqueña de Lesbianas y Homosexuales (the Puerto Rican Lesbian and Gay Coalition) was also formed. [16] That same year, one of the first LGBT pride parades was organized in Puerto Rico, and subsequent events occur each year in San Juan and Cabo Rojo. [17]
Between the 1990s and 2008, various LGBT community groups arose, as there was more public discussion about sexual orientation, gender identity, human rights and the HIV-AIDS pandemic. Today, there are numerous Puerto Rican LGBT rights organizations and nightclubs, with most of the LGBTQ organizations based in and around San Juan, Cabo Rojo, and Vieques. [18]
On 6 November 2012, Popular Democratic Party candidate Pedro Peters Maldonado became the first openly gay politician elected to public office in the island's history, when he won a seat in San Juan's city council. [19]
Justin Santiago, a Puerto Rican trans man from Barranquitas was the first person in Puerto Rico who changed his name and gender on his birth certificate, and live as a trans man. In his youth, Santiago had been forced to attend conversion therapy sessions, a pseudoscientific practice that aims to change the ideas of LGBT people. Afterwards, Santiago advocated for the conversion therapy ban which was signed into law by Ricardo Rosselló in 2019. [20] [21]
Loverbar was a queer bar, restaurant and nightclub located in Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico that opened in 2020 [22] and closed the following year. [23] [24] As a queer club it was the first of its kind in Puerto Rico, [25] [26] with Refinery29 calling it "the queer destination for everything exciting, progressive, and radical about the Puerto Rican queer scene." [25]
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Puerto Rico have most of the same protections and rights as non-LGBT individuals. Public discussion and debate about sexual orientation and gender identity issues has increased, and some legal changes have been made. Supporters and opponents of legislation protecting the rights of LGBT persons can be found in both of the major political parties. Public opposition still exists due, in large part, to the strong influence of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as socially conservative Protestants. Puerto Rico has a great influence on the legal rights of LGBT citizens. Same-sex marriage has been legal in the commonwealth since July 2015, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional.
The Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation was founded in Berlin in June 2007. It is a foundation focused on human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) people.
Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes is a gay Puerto Rican author, scholar, and performer. He is better known as Larry La Fountain. He has received several awards for his creative writing and scholarship as well as for his work with Latino and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) students. He currently resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The San Juan Nationalist revolt was one of many uprisings against United States Government rule which occurred in Puerto Rico on October 30, 1950 during the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party revolts. Amongst the uprising's main objectives were an attack on La Fortaleza, and the U.S. Federal Court House Building in Old San Juan.
Nemir Matos Cintrón is a Puerto Rican author who resides in Florida. She has published several books of poetry and parts of a novel. She has openly thematized her lesbianism in much of her work.
Manuel Ramos Otero was a Puerto Rican writer. He is widely considered to be the most important openly gay twentieth-century Puerto Rican writer who wrote in Spanish, and his work was often controversial due to its sexual and political content. Ramos Otero died in San Juan, Puerto Rico, due to complications from AIDS.
Pedro Julio Serrano is a gay and HIV+ human rights activist and president of Puerto Rico Para Todes, a non-profit LGBTQ+ and social justice advocacy organization founded in 2003. He is a former advisor to former New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito and former San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. He served, for more than three years, as executive director of Programa Vida and Clínica Transalud of the Municipality of San Juan. He now works as Director of Development at Waves Ahead.
Mala Mala is a 2014 Puerto Rican documentary film directed by Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles, starring Jason "April" Carrión, Samantha Close and Ivana Fred. The film shows several stories of the transgender community in Puerto Rico, including April Carrion, a well-known drag queen who participated in the reality show RuPaul's Drag Race. Mala Mala also includes the historic victory of the LGBT community with the approval and signature of Law 238-2014, which prevents discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Mala Mala has been presented in festivals around the world, including London, Ukraine, Los Angeles, Austin, Costa Rica and Mexico, in addition to schools such as The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, University of Pennsylvania, New York University and Harvard University.
Transgender and travesti rights in Argentina have been lauded by many as some of the world's most progressive. The country "has one of the world's most comprehensive transgender rights laws": its Gender Identity Law, passed in 2012, made Argentina the "only country that allows people to change their gender identities without facing barriers such as hormone therapy, surgery or psychiatric diagnosis that labels them as having an abnormality". In 2015, the World Health Organization cited Argentina as an exemplary country for providing transgender rights. Leading transgender activists include Lohana Berkins, Diana Sacayán, Mariela Muñoz, María Belén Correa, Marlene Wayar, Claudia Pía Baudracco, Susy Shock and Lara Bertolini.
LGBT in Argentina refers to the diversity of practices, militancies and cultural assessments on sexual diversity that were historically deployed in the territory that is currently the Argentine Republic. It is particularly difficult to find information on the incidence of homosexuality in societies from Hispanic America as a result of the anti-homosexual taboo derived from Christian morality, so most of the historical sources of its existence are found in acts of repression and punishment. One of the main conflicts encountered by LGBT history researchers is the use of modern concepts that were non-existent to people from the past, such as "homosexual", "transgender" and "travesti", falling into an anachronism. Non-heterosexuality was historically characterized as a public enemy: when power was exercised by the Catholic Church, it was regarded as a sin; during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it was in the hands of positivist thought, it was viewed as a disease; and later, with the advent of civil society, it became a crime.
Crime in Puerto Rico describes acts of violent and non-violent crime that take place within the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Kevin Fret Rodríguez was a Puerto Rican rapper, singer and the first openly gay male Latin trap artist. He was known for his gender-variant looks.
Bárbara "Soraya" Santiago Solla was a pioneer of the transgender community in Puerto Rico as well as the first person in Puerto Rico to change the gender designation on their birth certificate following gender reassignment surgery.
Elisa Crespo is an American activist, nonprofit executive, and politician from New York City. She is the executive director of the New Pride Agenda. Crespo ran in the 2021 New York City Council election.
Loverbar was a queer bar, restaurant and nightclub located in Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico. As a queer club it was the first of its kind in Puerto Rico, with Refinery29 calling it "the queer destination for everything exciting, progressive, and radical about the Puerto Rican queer scene." It opened in 2020 and announced its closure at the end of 2021.
Boquerón Pride is an annual pride parade and street party held during the month of June in the beach town of Boquerón in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. Along with Pride Puerto Rico, this is the largest LGBT pride-related event in Puerto Rico. The festival features a pride parade, street food, live music and drag queen performances, and with up to 40,000 attendees, it is one of the largest pride celebrations in the Caribbean region.
Christina Hayworth was an American AIDS and transgender rights activist and journalist. Born in Humacao, Puerto Rico, Hayworth focused most of her work in New York and Puerto Rico. She was a colonel in the US Army, where she was a part of the US occupation of Vietnam. Hayworth was present at the Stonewall riots of 1969 and became a Stonewall Veterans Association (SVA) ambassador to Latin America.
The Gay Pride Community Building, also known as Casa Orgullo, is a historic site and former LGBT community center located in Río Piedras Pueblo in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
