Central American Conservatives Look to Curb LGBTQ+ Education, Health

Conservative administrations and legislators are seeking to roll back what limited progressive health and education policies have been implemented in the region in favor of LGBTQ+ people. Sex education is facing possible curtailing in Guatemala and El Salvador and access to HIV treatment is being challenged by doctors' “conscientious objection” in Costa Rica. Meanwhile, the Honduran state was found responsible in July for the death of trans woman Leonela Zelaya, the second such ruling in four years.

Friday, October 11, 2024
Yuliana Ramazzini

El Faro English shines a light on Central America. Subscribe to our newsletter.

On September 18, in Guatemala, a group of deputies led by Rodrigo Pellecer of the Elefante legislative bloc presented a bill that seeks to eliminate classroom lessons and textbook content regarding so-called “gender ideology” and limit sex education in schools. Their main argument, they asserted, was to protect parents’ rights to guide their children’s sexual education and values.

“This bill has only one purpose, and that is to remove from education everything that corresponds to gender ideology so that our children are not being taught that it is something normal or something that is correct,” stated Pellecer, without specifying what ideology he meant, but in a clear reference to the existence of queer and trans people.

This is an old tune in Congress. The earlier “Law for the Protection of Life and Family,” approved in March 2022, would have increased criminal sentences for abortion, outlawed sex ed, and declared sexual diversity abnormal. But it was quickly vetoed, under public backlash, even by the Alejandro Giammattei administration — which billed itself as Christian-conservative, declaring Guatemala the “pro-life capital of Iberoamerica.”

These attitudes also extend to the judiciary: In late June, two days before the LGBTQ+ Pride march, the Constitutional Court granted an injunction allowing the march (which every year obtains requisite permits) but ordering the president and overseers of the Police to prevent exposure to children — something that did not and could not happen in a public procession through downtown Guatemala City.

More:
https://elfaro.net/en/202410/centroamerica/27594/central-american-conservatives-look-to-curb-lgbtq-education-health