What does this new Congress hold for LGBTI people in Peru?

Of 133 congressmen, only two openly gay people were elected in a Congress dominated by the right wing.

February 4, 2020

By Vero Ferrari

On January 26, extraordinary elections were held to choose the members of Congress who would complete the remaining year and a half of the parliamentary term following the dissolution of Congress at the end of October 2019. In Lima, four openly LGBTQ+ candidates ran: Gabriela Salvador (lesbian), Carlos Polo (gay), Gahela Tseneg Cari Contreras (trans), and Alberto de Belaunde (gay). Of these, only the latter was elected and became a member of Congress for the Purple Party. De Belaunde also became the second most voted-for congressman, with more than 233,000 votes so far, as the tallying of ballots continues, due to his strong performance as a previous congressman.

Miguel Gonzales of the Purple Party was elected for the Callao region with more than 10,000 votes. He is also openly gay and has worked for several years as a trainer on HIV/AIDS issues at the organization Sí da Vida.

They are the only two LGBTQ+ representatives we will have in Congress, out of 130 members, in an uncertain landscape for our community, which has yet to see any of its demands approved. Parliament has been taken over by a fragmented right wing that is least interested in guaranteeing the rights of vulnerable populations like the LGBTQ+ community. They operate under the slogan that there are "more important" issues to resolve, such as judicial reform, which always serves as an excuse not to legislate in our favor and to continue historically marginalizing us.

The three largest political forces, having secured the most seats in Congress, share, despite their significant differences, a lack of interest in the LGBTI community: Popular Action (25), Alliance for Progress (22), and the Popular Agricultural Front of Peru-Frepap (15), a traditional Catholic right-wing party, an emerging right-wing party, and a religious movement, respectively. The latter party is the most likely to surprise because, despite not adhering to a conservative agenda and not having joined the fundamentalist groups that fueled hate campaigns against LGBTI people in recent years, it does have a moralizing stance. One of its congressmen publicly stated that homosexuals have "evil ingrained in their bodies and blood," a statement for which the Frepap leadership later apologized, asserting their respect for equality and the Constitution.

In contrast, the left, with the Broad Front, has minimal representation, with nine congressmen, none of whom have taken up the LGBTI flag as their own in the campaign, but it is part of their government plan, so at least they can be required to comply.

To celebrate, because we can always celebrate something, the parties that fielded the most conservative candidates, thanks to a racist, homophobic, and misogynistic campaign, in addition to their past links to corruption and Fujimorism, failed to pass the 5% vote threshold to place congressmen, so we have been rid of the most recalcitrant anti-rights figures and representatives of the disinformation campaign “Don't mess with my children”: Beatriz Mejía (Avanza País), Justo Balmaceda (Contigo), and Rosa Bartra and Nelly Cuadros (Solidaridad Nacional), who even proposed penalizing women who had abortions, and sought to position themselves as the Peruvian “Bolsonarism”.

In that sense, 2020 will be another year of drought for the LGBTI movement, but it can serve to strengthen the fight for representation in 2021, when the presidential elections are coming.

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