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Ernesto is a gay man. He was fired from a municipal office in eastern El Salvador after enduring a month of discrimination and workplace harassment. He had worked there for four years as Head of Tourism, but since May, when the administration changed, he was reassigned to the Archives and Digitization department.

In his new job, Ernesto was sent on field visits along with another colleague assigned by his superiors. The mayor's office provided transportation, but unlike his previous work arrangement, he no longer had a vehicle for his trips. He had a car that took him to the vicinity of his destination. Therefore, he had to walk at least five kilometers in rural areas to carry out cadastral work or mark utility poles.

Besides the exhaustion and the danger of traveling alone, he also had to endure his companion's homophobic attacks. On one occasion, his companion forced him into a thicket, where Ernesto found a beehive and was chased by the bees.

On June 30, an Uber driver whom Ernesto knew and had recommended to his sister came to the mayor's office to collect payment for a ride. The man arrived at his office and politely asked him to leave the premises. Outside, he began to hit him, and Ernesto defended himself.

No one from the mayor's office intervened. On the contrary, the municipality used the security camera footage against him. Despite having a type of contract that requires an administrative process before dismissal, Ernesto was fired without following that process.

“They discussed how things were done verbally, but the document says the opposite. The documents don't say I was fired for being gay, even though that's what happened; they just gave my dismissal a different reason… The mayor's office is full of homophobic people,” he says. He prefers that his name not appear in this article, nor that any details that could endanger his safety be given.  

Ernesto has filed a complaint with the Attorney General's Office, but the complaint is stalled. However, a labor lawsuit he filed in court has progressed, and a hearing is scheduled for the coming days.

No income

During the previous mayoral administration, Ernesto had secured an agreement between the municipality and a ministry to build a central park. With the change in municipal government to Nuevas Ideas, President Nayib Bukele's party, the mayor's office abandoned the project.

Even after he was fired, ministry staff remained in contact with Ernesto to finish the project. But the mayor's official Facebook page posted a video, featuring a photograph of him and horror music in the background. It stated that Ernesto no longer worked for the municipality and that they were not responsible for any actions he might take.

That same video led to his dismissal from the orchestra he belonged to, where he was manager, singer, and dancer. Also, after its release, he stopped getting calls to produce quinceañera parties, another source of income.

Against LGBTIQ+ phobia in public institutions

In El Salvador, LGBTQ+ people who are eligible for formal employment but are subsequently dismissed due to their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression lack legal protections, both in public and private institutions.

In Ecuador, there was a mechanism to prevent discrimination against LGBTQ+ employees working in public institutions under the Executive branch. This was Executive Decree 56, approved in 2010 during the administration of former President Mauricio Funes, thanks to the efforts of civil society organizations.

When Nayib Bukele assumed the presidency in June 2019, one of his cabinet's first decisions was to eliminate the Secretariat of Social Inclusion, which included the Directorate of Sexual Diversity , responsible for implementing the decree. Its functions were transferred to the Gender and Diversity Unit of the Ministry of Culture.

The department had a call center that employees could call if they felt discriminated against because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. It also provided training to raise awareness about LGBTQ+ issues among staff at public institutions.

Although the decree did not include sanctions, Roberto Zapata, secretary of the Amate El Salvador Association, recalls that on one occasion, a person who was denounced for discrimination by a gay boy was transferred to another institution.

To date, the decree has not been repealed, but social organizations report a lack of clarity regarding its implementation. This is according to Jessica Torres, an expert on LGBTIQ+ issues and Deputy Attorney for Civil and Individual Rights at the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office (PDDH).

According to Torres, the decree had two flaws: its executive nature meant it was temporary but limited. It applied only to agencies under the presidency, excluding other public institutions. In other words, in the case of Ernesto's dismissal from the mayor's office, the regulation would have been invalid.

In recent years, the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office (PDDH) received six complaints from sexual minorities regarding stigma and discrimination, not only in the workplace. However, Torres clarifies that in employment cases, complaints against the private sector are the most prevalent.

Fear of reporting

Roberto Saldaña, coordinator of areas for the Federation of Independent Associations and Unions of El Salvador (FEASIES) and coordinator of the LGBTIQ+ program, explains that no complaints of labor violations were received in public institutions. People don't report these violations for fear of retaliation.

In the last two years, with Bukele at the head of the Executive branch, several people were unjustly dismissed from public institutions. Starting in June of this year, when Nuevas Ideas (his party) swept the mayoral elections, there were many dismissals without due process.

Since 2015, FEASIES has trained union leaders and rank-and-file members on issues of sexual diversity. Since then, they have observed changes: union members from the LGBTQ+ community are more empowered, and the number of LGBTQ+ people joining the federation has increased.

Among the complaints received by FEASIES are many from trans women who are not allowed to express their gender identity in their workplaces, being prohibited from wearing feminine clothing and makeup. These women, when they worked in the Executive branch, were the ones who benefited most from Executive Decree 56, FEASIES says.

In general, according to Saldaña, what happens with layoffs in El Salvador is that, due to a lack of knowledge about labor laws, 80 percent of employees sign their severance agreement before reporting a violation of their labor rights. When this happens, they can no longer help.

“It’s unclear whether Executive Decree 56 is completely inapplicable or not. It’s curious that, within the Ministry of Culture, if you check current documents created by the Gender and Diversity Unit, the decree isn’t mentioned. It’s as if it doesn’t exist, as if there were no precedents, as if the issue were being addressed for the first time. It has a lot to do with the regime’s tacit policy: erasing what came before,” says Roberto Zapata, secretary of the Amate El Salvador Association.

This organization supported transgender and lesbian women who were laid off when the Secretariat of Social Inclusion was eliminated after Bukele came to power. It also supported them during the staff reductions at Ciudad Mujer, a flagship project of the left-wing governments, which focused on providing comprehensive support to women.

Presentes attempted to contact delegates from the Gender and Diversity Unit of the Ministry of Culture, but at the time of writing, there was no response.

To date, the closest thing to discrimination against the LGBTIQ+ population in Salvadoran legislation is a 2009 ruling by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice. This ruling concerns the Ministry of the Interior's refusal to allow a group of gay men to form an organization.

The court ruled at the time that it was not possible to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation. At that time, there was little education about gender identity in the country. For example, this ruling was not linked to other laws.

During the previous two administrations, the Ministry of Labor held job fairs specifically for LGBTQ+ individuals. It also had a dedicated service window for them. This initiative was discontinued, and although organizations and the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office (PDDH) have met with representatives from the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Culture to discuss resuming these projects, they have not yet received an official response.

Meanwhile, as in Ernesto's case, the unjustified dismissals of people from sexual dissidence groups could continue without any state protection.

After the mayor's office posted on social media, Ernesto had no more income. Only the payment he received for producing a quinceañera party a week ago. “With the pink-themed party, I paid three months' rent. I'm getting by on food. Sometimes my mom helps me, sometimes I get desperate, but I'm managing,” the young man explained.