LGBT rights in Guatemala

A republic in Central America with the third largest area in the region, Guatemala is, after Mexico, the largest of the Central American countries in population, with about 11.5 million people.

Homosexuality was made illegal by the Spanish conquest (1524). It was decriminalized in the nineteenth century, but it was not until the 1960s and 1980s that more open-minded attitudes toward homosexuality began to appear within Guatemalan society as a whole.

The Colonial Period

After the Spanish conquest, the administrative entity called Captaincy General of Guatemala comprised an area that today comprehends six countries (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua). The Spaniards condemned the same-sex sexual practices that were common among many of the Mayan peoples and promulgated the Christian sexual ethic that only heterosexual relations in marriage were acceptable sexual behavior.

The Spanish colonial period ended in 1821, but the cultural hegemony of the Catholic Church remained until 1871, when a liberal revolution took place. Through all the "ecclesiastical period," homosexuality was illegal and persecuted under statutes forbidding "sodomy" or "pecado nefando." The law covered both male and female homosexual acts, but only male cases were indicted. Female homosexuality was invisible to the male-centered establishment.

Although homosexual acts were illegal, the penalties were rather mild. Natives were regarded as minors under the law, and thus they were not actually tried for sexual offenses. Instead, they were subjected to sermons and lectures.

The more common offenders during this period were friars and priests, but if they were sentenced for violating these statutes (which very seldom happened), their jail terms of six months to four years were served in their monasteries or religious houses, not in secular prisons.

The Revolution of 1871

In 1871 a vast reorganization of the Guatemalan state began. The state abandoned the colonial discourse and changed the laws that had been dictated by the Catholic Church. French ideas and concepts replaced the old ones. As part of this revolution, homosexuality was decriminalized on the constitutional grounds that private sexual acts between consenting adults were not the concern of the state.

The law changed, but a culture that despised homosexuals and homosexuality remained for many decades. Denigrating jokes about homosexual relations were common in families and even in the newspapers.

It was not until the late 1930s that a noted lesbian, Julia Quiñones, began a cultural club composed of gay men and herself. The activities of this group were very discreet, consisting mostly of reading and discussing poetry. Nevertheless, it was a beginning.

The 1950s and 1960s

In the 1950s, the attitudes of Guatemalan society began to change. After the surgical sex-change of Christine Jorgensen in the winter of 1952-1953, a timid discussion of sex in general began to take place in the media. The most important of the newspapers, El Imparcial, published for some months a weekly page about the "third sex."

This opening was expanded during the presidential tenure (1958-1963) of General Miguel Ydigoras, who appointed some noted homosexuals to important administrative offices.

From the AIDS Panic to Today

The AIDS epidemic of the early 1980s found the Guatemalan glbtq community without any cultural, social, or political organizations. At that time there really was no glbtq community. Moreover, the AIDS pandemic had a very negative effect on attitudes toward homosexuality.

However, in the 1990s a few political organizations appeared. The most significant of these was the Colectivo Gay de Guatemala that in October 2000 changed its name to Guatemalan Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual and Transgender Community. It has subsequently grown to become an important voice in Guatemala.

However, despite this new political voice, crimes against homosexuals continue to be a serious problem. Moreover, they do not receive the same attention from the authorities that other crimes do. In July and October 2003 several transvestites were murdered, and the crimes were not seriously investigated by the police.

On 24 June 2006, approximately 200 participants marched in the gay pride parade in Guatemala City (Weekly News Update on the Americas 25 June 2006). During a June 2006 forum organized by the Guatemalan transgendered community, participants denounced the lack of jobs, health services, education and security for gay and transgendered individuals (The Miami Herald 20 June 2006). Another gay pride march took place on 25 June 2005, during which the participating organizations denounced increased violence against homosexuals and workplace discrimination (AFP 25 June 2005). According to a representative of the Citizens Coordinated for Sexual Diversity (Coordinadora Ciudadana para la Diversidad Sexual, CCDS), many homosexual people lose their jobs due to their sexual orientation (ibid.). According to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), the 5th gay pride march held in June 2004 attracted roughly 1,000 people (14 July 2004).

According to Gaytimes, Guatemala is characterized by "deep-rooted homophobia" and "state harassment of the [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered] LGBT community" (n.d.). Human Rights Watch (HRW) states that it has received numerous reports of "acts of violence against and intimidation of transgender women, lesbians and gay men in Guatemla" (21 Feb. 2006b; HRW 21 Feb. 2006a).

Wholistic Sexuality Support Organization Against AIDS (Organización de Apoyo a una Sexualidad Integral frente al SIDA, OASIS) a Guatemalan gay rights organization, indicated to The Miami Herald that at least 17 transgendered individuals were killed in Guatemala between 2001 and 2006 (20 June 2006). In an article published by Gay.com, Amnesty International states that seven transgendered sex workers were murdered in 2005 (Gay.com 22 Dec. 2005).

A 18 June 2006 Europa Press (EP) article reports the violent death of a man of Honduran origin and injuries to four other men during a 17 June 2006 attack in Guatemala City. The Honduran man reportedly worked as the treasurer for a transsexual association dedicated to ending violence against homosexual sex trade workers (EP 18 June 2006). The same article reports that Juan Pablo Méndez Cartagena, a transsexual more commonly known as Paulina, was killed six months earlier under similar circumstances, according to Jorge López, OASIS Director (ibid.; HRW 21 Feb. 2006b).

In February 2006, Human Rights Watch (HRW) sent a letter to the Guatemalan president, Oscar Berger, asking the Guatemalan authorities to respond to the violent attacks against transgendered people (21 Feb. 2006a; 21 Feb. 2006b). The letter stated that Guatemalan police "have not done enough to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people" (HRW 21 Feb. 2006a). In a HRW article, the gay-rights group OASIS, former employer of Paulina, declared that their office was under "undue police surveillance" and that Paulina's murder investigation was not progressing (21 Feb. 2006a).

Sources report that Paulina and Sulma, also transsexual, were shot in the head in December 2005 by four assailants on motorcycles (Gay.com 22 Dec. 2005; HRW 21 Feb. 2006b). A HRW article reports that witnesses had told OASIS that members of the National Civil Police were involved in the murder (ibid.; see also EP 18 June 2006). According to an article in The Miami Herald, the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman stated that four policemen "may have been behind the murder" of Paulina (20 June 2006). No further information on the possible involvement of security forces in these killings could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

A 7 July 2004 article on Xinhuanet reports the violent death of a transsexual who was known to be the leader of the Homosexual Movement of Guatemala (Movimiento Homosexual de Guatemala).

In an interview with The Miami Herald, the public investigator in charge of Paulina's murder investigation indicated that "some of the killings of [transgendered persons] probably are hate crimes" (20 June 2006).

According to sources consulted, homosexuality is legal in Guatemala (Gaytimes n.d.; Sodomy Laws of the World 2 June 2006). Gaytimes also states that, under the 1997 Code on Childhood and Youth, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is banned (Gaytimes n.d.).

PlanetOut indicates that gay and lesbian nightlife is concentrated in Guatemala City, primarily in the city centre (n.d.). Gaytimes indicates that "a surprisingly large gay scene" exists in Guatemala City, including various clubs and bars and the annual gay pride marches, which began in 2000 (n.d.).

The Guatemala daily newspaper El Periódico published an article on gay-friendly businesses or "pink businesses" (negocios rosa) indicating that, as of May 2005, there were five gay-friendly dance clubs, a spa and at least eight bars (22 May 2005). The Web site GayGuatemala.com lists other gay-friendly businesses, including a cinema, a sauna, two dance clubs, a café, a tourism service, an escort service, a sex shop and an internet café (n.d.).

Citizens Coordinated for Sexual Diversity (Coordinadora Ciudadana para la Diversidad Sexual, CCDS), a coalition of 10 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), is fighting for gay rights (AFP 25 June 2005).

The Queens of the Night Collective (Transreynas de la Noche) is a collective of members of the gay community who have denounced the [translation] "social cleansing policy" of the Guatemalan government against their community (AFP 1 June 2006; see also Weekly News Update on the Americas 25 June 2006). According to Jorge López, a member of the Collective, more than 35 transvestites have been murdered between 1997 and 2006 (AFP 1 June 2006). Agence France-Presse (AFP) also states that the Collective is the first organization to openly defend the rights of the gay community (ibid.).

In June and July 2004, the lesbian rights organization Lesbiradas and CCDS received a number of threats thought to be related to their work against discrimination (ILGHRC 14 July 2006). An incident occurred in which a man claimed he was visiting the organizations to donate material but ended up warning the activists about their work (ibid.). Threatening phone calls were also made to the office the two organizations share in Guatemala City (ibid.). CCDS had been involved in organizing the gay pride march and other gay public awareness activities that month (ibid.).