Venezuela Flirts with Same-Sex Marriage

As Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly (ANC) advances in the rewriting of the constitution, Deputy, constitutional expert, and President of the Constitutional Standing Committee of the ANC, Hermann Escarra is considered a key player in this process. Recently, LGBTIQ collectives met with Escarra to push their agenda, which includes equal or same-sex marriage, as the following translated article reports.

However, Escarra recently made headlines on social media after espousing his views on the issues of same-sex marriage an LGBTIQ. His tweets included messages such as:

“I have invariably maintained that I reject same-sex marriage and I defend family and life, and will do so whatever the consequences.”

Escarra also stated that non-traditional marriage “goes against the natural and biological order”, and that “homosexual marriage [has no] basing in Natural Law.” He went on to add that marriage “corresponds to a man and a woman accepting their sexual identity,” and that it is “inspired in the gospel.”

For the first time in Venezuela a debate has opened up in the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) on same-sex marriage, as well as on the right to [legal and public] identity for transgender and transsexual persons .

After a meeting between LGBTIQ collectives and the president of the Constitutional Standing Committee of the ANC, Hermann Escarra, it has been reported not only that the debate has been amplified to ensure the rights of homo-parental families, but also “the right of transgender persons to have a [legal and public] identity”.

VTactual consulted with Ingrid Baron, member of the Lesbian Base Collective of Venezuela, on expectations which the sexual diversity movement has about the meeting with members of the ANC.

“I feel that we are very close to consolidating advances in the collective LGBTIQ rights issues, in legislation and in recognition of our historic struggles. I believe with great certainty that we will achieve a great support for our demands in the framework of the improved constitutional text,” said Baron.

Amongst the outcomes of the meeting she highlights the following: the addition of the category of human dignity to the preamble of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as well as the evaluation and strengthening of the request for same-sex marriage and/or stable unions of fact or civil unions.

Deputy Hermann Escarra, who is best known for his expertise on constitutional matters, recognized that the various committees of the ANC ignore the terminology and the different realities of the LGBTI collective in Venezuela, and as such requested support from the organizations with training in the matter.

“I’ve learned a lot, there is even a terminology to learn, there is a glossary of terms to review, we should recognize that we do not know them,” said the Deputy, who urged the organizations to develop proposals that can be discussed in the work groups.

The next step is the installation of two work groups, “one to talk about the fundamental principles of the Constitution and sexual diversity, and the other for the construction of a law on the protection of sexual diversity,” proposals which have been brought forward by the Venezuelan LGBTI community, explained in turn Alexis Bolivar.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.