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Six Honduran TG Murders in Two Months

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    I just ran across this story at a political LGBT blog. It made me feel like throwing up:

    [LGBT campaigners are calling on Honduran authorities to fully investigate the murders of six transgender women in just 60 days.
    According to Human Rights Watch, the first death was on November 29th and the latest took place on January 17th.

    The women were murdered on the streets or in their homes in the capital, Tegucigalpa, and in the cities of Comayagüela and San Pedro Sula.

    The attacks ranged from gunshots to setting the victims on fire.]

    Human Rights Watch began keeping tabs on this case at the end of January and so far there has been exactly zero arrests.

    U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Lllorens, had made the Honduran authorities responsible for the proper investigation of these crimes:

    [T]he United States Embassy in Honduras has taken the highly unusual step of releasing an official statement asking the Honduran government and it's authorities to investigate a number of recent murders committed against members of the LGBT community in Honduras.
    Hugo Llorens (pictured), the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, sat down to talk yesterday with La Prensa and was asked about the murders and the official statement from his office. Here is what he said:


    "The gay community in many countries, including mine, is very vulnerable to discrimination and harassment. It's not an unique problem to Honduras, but it is worrisome that the five murders have occurred within a period of a little month than a month. That's why we have asked the authorities in charge to apply the extent of the law [and] to see the situation as a threat to human rights."

    [I]n my years covering LGBT rights in Latin America, I could not remember the last time an U.S. ambassador had spoken up specifically on the issue of human rights violations against a Latin American country's LGBT population.
    Well, tonight, add the voice of a sitting United States president to that list. And words do matter.

    ...As for Honduras: Following today's statement by United States President Barack Obama, the Honduran president Porfirio Lobo Sosa held a press conference today and announced that the United States Department of State had committed to send trained personnel to investigate the recent number of transgender murders, even as he took the opportunity to play down the number of transgender murders.

    Latin culture has a tradition of machismo and TG women are considered the lowest of the low there. It is up to the Hondurans to change their national personality but this is shameful. These murders must be solved.

    And you know that there are several big, strong macho men in Honduras right now and are bragging about it.

    Z





    I am the itch, after it was scratched.
      February 8, 2011 11:04 PM GMT
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  • I've just spent ten days in a hospital staffed by coloured people mostly from Africa and all have been really nice and a pleasure to be meet and chat with as they did my nursing or cleaning duties.
    The single exception to this was a woman from Jamaica who looked at me like I was dog**** and took on such a surly attitude as she did my BP, etc. Luckily she was tasked to other patients so we never met again.
    .
    I have a coloured lady neighbour from Martinique in the Caribbean and she is very nice but her 20ish son looks at me with quite definite hostility.

    I've had this from other Caribbean coloureds so I have to think that transphobia is endemic in the whole area.
      February 9, 2011 9:05 AM GMT
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