ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) – Mariana Sepulveda has been stabbed on the street, detained by police and expelled from her high school – all for being transgender in Paraguay, one of the most sexually conservative countries in Latin America.
“I’ve felt hate for not being heterosexual,” said Sepulveda, 32, who now works for an advocacy group. “Raising a family, having a partner, adopting children seems out of reach because there are no legal conditions for us in Paraguay.”
A lack of legal protections and prevalent macho attitudes have long stoked discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people in the poor, mostly Roman Catholic country. Advocacy groups fear the stigma and attacks on the LGBQT community could get worse now that the education minister has banned classes about sexual diversity in schools and even volunteered to help burn all books related to the subject.
In this Sept. 30, 2017 photo, members of a gay organization “Panambi,” meaning butterfly in Guarani, protest the killing of transvestite prostitutes and demand equal rights for gays during the annual LGBQT parade in Asuncion, Paraguay. Discrimination against gay and transgender people has traditionally been the norm in Paraguay, and activists say it’s becoming more evident since the conservative government recently banned the teaching of sexual diversity in schools. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
The ban was implemented in October after schools began using a United Nations Children’s Fund guidebook for teachers on avoiding discrimination between girls and boys and achieving gender equality.
“We’re not going to promote gender ideology,” Education Minister Enrique Riera told local media earlier this year. “We’re going to base ourselves on what is expressed in the constitution, which says that marriage is between a man and a woman.”
Gay rights groups say the ban goes against Paraguay’s constitution because it is discriminatory and ignores the recommendations by UNICEF and other international organizations.
“We’re living a sad time of religious fundamentalism, intolerance and hate that places this country as the most homophobic one of the region,” Somos Gay, a Paraguayan gay rights group, said in a statement. It added that “this situation has an impact on human lives. Hate crimes, bullying and violence are the disastrous consequences of this encouragement of homophobia.”
Attitudes about LGBQT rights in Paraguay stand in sharp contrast to other countries in the region.
Neighboring Argentina lets people change their legal and physical gender identity without having to undergo judicial, psychiatric and medical procedures and has appointed its first transgender police chief. Uruguay’s first transgender senator assumed her seat in October. In Chile, the center-left government also has been pushing measures giving greater acceptance for transgender people in general and children in particular.
But conservative institutions such as the Catholic Church retain a strong influence in Paraguay.
“There’s the indifference of the state toward sexual minorities to avoid confronting the church,” said Ramon Corvalan, a Paraguayan anthropologist. “The lay state thing is just a statement in the constitution. The church is still strong here.”
He said that “homophobia in Paraguay has a cultural origin based in male chauvinism” that dates back to wars that shaped the country.
Nearly two of every three Paraguayans died in a disastrous war against Argentina and Brazil in 1865-70. The victorious 1932-35 Chaco War with Bolivia was also devastating. Both left a heavy imbalance between the male and female populations.
“There was an availability of many women for the men who had survived the wars in an effort to repopulate the country,” Corvalan said.
Earlier this year, the U.N. Human Rights Council recommended Paraguay pass a law to eliminate discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, but it has not done so.
“Perhaps international organizations like the U.N. and its agencies are worried about this issue of rejection for non-heterosexuals, but in Paraguay it’s not a key issue,” said political analyst Ignacio Martinez.
President Horacio Cartes has also been criticized for his attitudes toward the LGBQT community. Just months before he was elected in 2013, he compared gay people to monkeys and said he would rather shoot himself in the testicles before his son married a man. Cartes later apologized, but the comments have not seemed to hurt his political career.
The ban on teaching about sexual diversity may further stall Paraguay’s embrace of LGBQT rights.
At a school on the outskirts of Asuncion, students wrote a report seeking to prove that homosexuality is a “social problem.” After it went viral on social media, the school principal, Margarita Aquino, apologized and acknowledged that in Paraguay’s “public schools, sexual education doesn’t exist.”
But the leaders of some communities say they prefer it this way.
“We don’t support same-sex marriage because it’s not natural, and we oppose that in our schools they teach our boys and girls that being gay, trans or lesbian is a choice,” said Carolina Aranda, mayor of the city of Mariano Roque Alonso. “I’m not homophobic; I have gay friends. But I don’t want them to teach kids things that are not normal.”
In this Nov. 2, 2017 photo, Mariana Sepulveda stands between her parents Gaspar and Isabel for a portrait at her home in Asuncion, Paraguay. The 32-year-old transgender woman has been stabbed on the street, detained by police and expelled from her high school, all for being transgender in Paraguay, one of the most sexually conservative countries in Latin America. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
In this Sept. 30, 2017 photo, a nun watches the annual LGBQT march in Asuncion, Paraguay. A lack of legal protections and prevalent macho attitudes have long stoked discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people in the poor, mostly Roman Catholic country. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
In this Sept. 30, 2017 photo, people perform “transvestite target practice” to protest the killings of transvestite prostitutes during the annual LGBQT march in Asuncion, Paraguay. Advocacy groups fear the stigma and attacks against the LGBQT community could get worse now that the country’s education minister has banned classes about sexual diversity in schools and even volunteered to help burn all books related to the subject. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
In this Oct. 28, 2017 photo, Mayor Carolina Aranda, center holding a white flag, is accompanied by members of the Catholic church during a pro-Life ceremony in Mariano Roque Alonsno, Paraguay. “We don’t support same-sex marriage because it’s not natural, and we oppose that in our schools they teach our boys and girls that being gay, trans or lesbian is a choice,” said Aranda. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
In this Sept. 30, 2017 photo, Stelio Barbosa lies on the street to perform the murder of a transvestite during the annual LGBQT parade in Asuncion, Paraguay. Gay rights groups say the ban on teaching sexual diversity in schools goes against Paraguay’s constitution because it is discriminatory. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
In this Sept. 30, 2017 photo, members of a gay organization “Panambi,” meaning butterfly in Guarani, protest the killing of transvestite prostitutes and demand equal rights for gays during the annual LGBQT parade in Asuncion, Paraguay. The ban on teaching sexual diversity in schools was implemented in October after the U.N. Children’s Fund issued a guidebook for teachers on avoiding discrimination between girls and boys and achieving gender equality. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
In this Nov. 13, 2017 photo, transgender Mariana Sepulveda sips “terere,” a cold, herbal tea, as she works with Panambi board members Marcela Valdez, behind left, Yren Rotelam center, and Tamara Amarilla in Asuncion, Paraguay. “Raising a family, having a partner, adopting children seems out of reach because there are no legal conditions for us in Paraguay,” said Sepulveda, 32, who now works for the advocacy group. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
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