“Positive news from LGBT people who present examples of self-improvement or about their contributions to society” should be expanded in the media, says the activist and human rights defender.
By: Redacción Intertextual/ contacto@intertextualcr.com
Every May 17th marks the #InternationalDay AgainstHomophobia, #Transphobia and #Biphobia. This year the motto is “Always together: unite in diversity,” whose purpose is to focus the need for solidarity between movements to continue achieving changes that are positive.
This anniversary was created in 2004 to draw attention to the violence and discrimination suffered by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and more broadly against people with diverse sexual orientations, identities, expressions and sexual characteristics.
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The relevance of this event is to commemorate the removal of homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses by the General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1990.
LGBTQIA+ community in the world
ILGA World – International Association of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Trans and Intersex, in a database show «how true equality is still far from the reach of many LGBTQIA+ people around the world» among the findings they present that: «the The death penalty is the legally prescribed penalty for consensual same-sex sexual acts in 6 UN member states, and in another 5 there is no full legal certainty. As many as 64 UN member states criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations: 62 of them criminalize de jure (laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual acts); 2 penalize de facto (in practice, based on other laws). At least 51 UN Member States have laws, rules and regulations that outlaw forms of expression related to issues of sexual and gender diversity, including in educational settings,” he notes.
However, it highlights some advances in the world such as the fact that 11 UN member states are banning so-called «conversion therapies»; 7 countries have introduced restrictions on unnecessary interventions on intersex youth and 20 allow legal gender recognition. Likewise, equal marriage is a reality in 33 UN Member States, in 58 States there are laws that protect people from hate crimes based on sexual orientation, but only 37 do so based on gender identity, 9 of gender expression and 5 of sexual characteristics, adds ILGA.
Diverse population in Nicaragua
This May 17 #InternationalDayagainstHomoLesboBiTransphobia through a communication campaign «Uncomfortable Voices in a Sexist and Diversophobic Political Culture» Jacob Ellis Williams, remembers the violations of Rights experienced by native and Afro-descendant people who are also diverse.
“In Nicaragua, a society continues to exist that not only denies our existence, but also intimidates us to try to silence our voices. For many years they have called us a minority, alluding to the fact that we are a small group of people who intend to impose our ideology, the people sexually diverse belonging to the original and Afro-descendant peoples experience a double stigmatization and prejudice.”
Williams stresses that «the sexually diverse population is multiethnic, and multicultural.» And that, just as they are allies on human rights issues, they ask that they be guaranteed the rights to life and to be named as they want to be. «We exist, and since we exist we resist and demand and ask for human rights for everyone from fair and equal treatment,» he says.
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The activists demand that the human rights of the diverse community be respected in Nicaragua and that public policies be applied in access to justice, decent work and quality employment and education.
Media the role they play against discrimination and prejudices to the LGBTQIA+ community
The media and the work of its editors can be a valuable tool for social change, making them visible, raising awareness, respect and empathy for LGBTQIA+ people. But they can also be an instrument that causes the opposite, if what is published is not treated properly, it could reinforce prejudices and increase the violence experienced by this population that is discriminated against on a daily basis, stigmatized for being responsible for their own violence suffered and for their duels.
An activist for sexual diversity in Managua who asked us to withhold his name for security reasons. He told Intertextual that the issue of addressing the rights of LGBT people in Nicaraguan digital media, mainly in exile, is focused only when it comes to anniversaries and in other cases when situations of violence or hate crimes occur.
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He tells us that “positive news from LGBT people who present examples of improvement or about their contributions to society” should be expanded in the media.
Contents in the notes
The activist, who is also a member of the Sustainable Development Network, an organization that supports vulnerable groups, recently found that the mostly digital media «make little effort in the content of the notes, limiting themselves to a few sources, positioning one or two specific people , while there is a diversity of sources.”
Despite the circumstances in which the country is in due to the sociopolitical crisis, the media should be committed to revealing other aspects of the life of LGBT people linked to «broadening the perspective of the presence or involvement of LGBT people in the nation. There is debt in the approach of LGBT people of the third age, addictions. Within these themes, the situation of vulnerable groups should be included, taking into account LGBT people ”recommends the activist.
Media policies
It is not known how much the media would like to contribute to the change of society’s perspective on LGBT people, sometimes the effort seems null, he indicates.
Therefore, it recommends that the media make an intersectional approach as indicated by human rights. “Almost all issues require an intersectionality vision in terms of human rights. They could make a contribution to the general change in values, ethics that need to be generated in Nicaraguan society for a real social transformation and that we do not experience the crisis situation that we generally experience again.»
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Other recommendations is to create in the media «a self-regulation protocol» for the proper approach to LGBT issues, accompanied by training on human rights and sexual #diversity.
Víctor Manuel Pérez of diverse identity, director of this digital medium (Intertextual), which is characterized by covering human rights issues with a gender focus, states that as of 2018 the media in general have been «more open on issues of human rights”. Pointing out that in Nicaragua there are many traditional media that do not exist because most have been closed as a way of censoring press freedom, thus generating the creation of independent digital media.
“The media need to educate ourselves” indicates the director of Intertextual due to the lack of “tools to do it with a good focus on human rights.”
Señala que la mayoría de las veces los temas LGBT “son abordados desde el sensacionalismo, desde la discriminación.” El periodista menciono el caso de un crimen de odio contra una chica trans en el occidente de Nicaragua llamada Lala, donde medios de alto alcance en titulares usaron su nombre de pila y refriéndose a su identidad por decisión como un Alias.
“Ahí nos damos cuenta de que los medios de comunicación deseen abordar los temas, pero carecen de herramientas para darle tratamiento respetando los derechos de la víctima de crímenes de odio por orientación sexual, por ejemplo” refiere Pérez. También exterioriza que hay un grupo reducido de medios que se rehúsan a no abordar estos temas “y si lo hacen lo abordan con un tinte de nota roja o amarillista,” asevera.
En Nicaragua hay muchos temas que abordar, pero se le está dando prioridad a la crisis sociopolítica que es el contexto que se vive a diario “somos muy pocos los medios que abordamos los temas locales, o que hacemos temáticas de género o diversidad y derechos humanos. Y no culpo a los medios que están trabajando por llevar la información del día a día” sostiene.n
