Roughly 400 gay people joined a public march in downtown Asuncion, Paraguay on Saturday to demand greater rights.
Activists also want the government to investigate the murders of transgender people.
Under the slogan of “holiday, in memory and protest,” the demonstrators marched through the city to the Pantheon of Heroes, Asuncion’s memorial to the country’s fallen soldiers, where they held a festival.
Tamara, a 22-year-old transgender woman, told Spanish news agency EFE that in Paraguay “there are many deaths of transgender people and the government does nothing.” She said that she had joined the march to demand justice for the unsolved murders.
Camila Zabala, a spokeswoman for the group Aireana, which supports lesbian rights, told EFE that more than 40 transgender people had been killed in the last decade.
Patricia Benitez, 33, a member of the group Panambi, said that the transgender community faces “a lot of discrimination” in public health services.
President Horacio Cartes of the conservative Colorado Party won office in August, dampening the hopes of activists lobbying for passage of a marriage bill.
In a radio interview broadcast a week before the election, Cartes compared gay people to “monkeys” and said that he would shoot himself in “the balls” if his son turned out to be gay.
After neighbor Argentina legalized gay nuptials in 2010, activists in Paraguay held out hope for a similar law in Paraguay. Activists introduced a bill to Congress, which failed to act on the proposal.
by On Top Magazine Staff
Source – On Top Magazine
