March for Respect and Equality for Gender Diversity Arrives at Venezuelan National Assembly

On Sunday a large group of people marched from Plaza Venezuela to the National Assembly to demand respect and equality for gender diversity.

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10 July 2011, AVN– On Sunday a large group of people marched from Plaza Venezuela to the National Assembly to demand respect and equality for gender diversity.

Ricardo Hung, vice-president of the grassroots community organisation Lambda, of Venezuela, said, while speaking on [state owned] Venezuelan Television (VTV), that the aim of the march was that a commission from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersexual (LGBTI) communities would deliver a document to the national assembly. The document, which was last presented to the national assembly on 22 August, demands that certain things be included in different Venezuelan laws.

Specifically, in the document the LGBTI network demands an amendment to the Civil Registry Law to allow the Venezuelan LGBTI population to change its name and gender on personal documents without needing a genital change.

The network is also requesting the approval of an antidiscrimination law that punishes violations of human rights of people of gender diversity and eliminates, in all current legislation, all aspects of laws that deny, or limit, rights of people of diverse sexuality.

Hung stressed that the march for gender diversity shows the disposition of the revolutionary government to push for the inclusion of all sectors and that citizens create laws to vindicate their rights that are established in the Magna Carta.

Ingrid Varon, member of the Venezuelan Lesbian Base, said that at the activity they are demanding equality and fair rights in the various areas of national life.

The activist highlighted the different LGBTI organisations that are currently receiving a lot of support by the various ministries and state institutions, in the defence of their rights.

“Our march is assertive and strong, we’re revolutionaries, we’re standing up and fighting, we’re part of communities, communal councils, representing sexual diversity without shame and with pride,” Varon said.

Translation by Tamara Pearson for Venezuelanalysis.com

Translator’s note:

According to the national assembly press, legislator Juan Aleman received the document, and said that the LGBTI community will have an answer to its requests and demands within two weeks.

LAMBDA is an NGO formed in 1998. According to its own description, it has evolved into an organisation that aims to promote the “integral development of male homosexuals” and to promote “self-recognition as complete human beings … and their insertion in different social spaces in our country”. 

The Venezuelan Lesbian Base was formed in February 2010 and focuses on culture, history, education and awareness, and hate crime and violence prevention.

Until now, Argentina is the only country in Latin America which allows same sex marriage nation wide, and it is legal in the capital of Mexico as well.

Source: AVN