Government of El Salvador fires LGBTI staff

The Salvadoran Federation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex People (FESLGBTI) denounced unjustified dismissals in the newly ascended government of President Nayib Bukele.

September 5, 2019

SAN SALVADOR – The Salvadoran Federation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex People (FESLGBTI) denounced unjustified dismissals in the newly ascended government of President Nayib Bukele, a decision that violates the labor rights of the population.

Bukele, who assumed his mandate on June 1, eliminated five State Secretariats just hours after starting his term, including the Secretariat of Social Inclusion, which left some 120 people in limbo, including lesbians, women and trans men.

The Secretariat of Social Inclusion, created in 2009 by the then left-wing party Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), aimed to advance in matters of rights and development of sectors traditionally excluded from the government agenda.

Their flagship program was "Ciudad Mujer" (Women's City), which provided comprehensive services to women at six locations throughout the impoverished Central American country. It was in this program that the majority of LGBTQ+ people were employed.

Bukele dismissed the staff without the possibility of relocating them.

“We demand that the respective authorities grant job security to trans people and lesbian women hired in the various government institutions, and even in those secretariats that have been dissolved, since they are the ones who would face the most barriers to entering the workforce due to the prevailing social prejudice,” the federation said in a statement.

Tatiana Molina, a 27-year-old trans woman, was a receptionist for six years at the headquarters of the government program “Ciudad Mujer” in San Miguel, east of the capital, but was fired on July 31.

"Unfair and illegal"

Molina maintains that she was summoned on August 20 to sign her termination letter for the position she held; if she did not sign the letter, she could not return to work.

“The letter said that by ministerial decree our positions would be eliminated, and that is why they were laying us off, something totally unfair and illegal because there was no prior process that supported the need to eliminate the jobs, from one day to the next they put us through the liquidation process,” Tatiana told Presentes.

He laments that, despite having voted for the current president, he is now unemployed. He plans to start his own business while awaiting a decision from the Constitutional Court on an appeal he has filed.

“I hope that the institutions can provide us with support, to demonstrate that our positions must be respected, because we are protected by the civil service law, and therefore, if we have not failed to fulfill our duties, we deserve to enjoy job stability as the law dictates. For this reason, we expect a ruling in favor of our labor rights,” she expressed.

From a rights-based approach to the Ministry of Culture

Within the Secretariat of Social Inclusion, the first Directorate of Sexual Diversity was developed, which promoted the eradication of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in public administration.

Bukele's decision to move the diversity directorate to the Ministry of Culture generated rejection from the LGBTI population.

“This happened to us in the Culture Department. We shouldn't be there; we're not a cultural problem. They should send the people who have a culture of discrimination there, not us,” Bryan Rodríguez, deputy director of the Trans Men Generation Association, told Presentes.

According to the report "Labor exclusion of trans people in San Salvador", presented in 2016 by the Center for Studies of Sexual and Gender Diversity (AMATE), precariousness and limited access to employment in the capital affects 63.6% of trans women and 44.4% of trans men.

This precarious situation forces trans women to engage in sex work on the city streets. In the case of trans men, the lack of employment is compounded by informal work and commerce.

The unemployment rate for transgender women is 12.5%, while for transgender men it is 11%. The overall unemployment rates for the cisgender population are 4.9% for women and 6.9% for men.

Closing down spaces for dialogue

The organizations also denounced the closure of thematic discussion tables in the Ministries of Security and Labor, spaces that served to create non-discrimination policies; access to work for LGBTI people.

The working groups have discontinued their regular meetings with the organizations, who submitted a letter requesting their continuation; at the time of writing, they had not received a response to the request.

“In three hours, the president has shattered us as the LGBTI community. Instead of continuing to move forward, he is taking away the spaces we have gained. It is a great setback,” said Rodríguez.

Human rights defenders feel that President Nayib Bukele's discourse could exacerbate attacks against LGBTI people, since his lack of a clear position on the rights of diverse populations and his refusal to meet with them could increase discrimination and intolerance.

In March 2018, a draft Gender Identity Law was presented to Congress, which is still under study by the Commission on Women and Gender Equality.

“He (the president) is completely out of touch with our population. What he is doing is inciting an increase in violence against the LGBTI population. His discourse is “it’s okay to be violent towards them.” With the president’s discourse, if men, trans women, gay men, and lesbians are assaulted, persecuted, abused, and murdered, then nothing will be done,” Rodríguez stated.

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