“Today we can be ourselves”: LGBTI people cry out for their rights in Panama

Holding hands, Aurielis and Ivon arrived this Saturday smiling at one of the concentration points in the City of Panama to participate in a Pride march: “Today we can be ourselves, without being judged. Not every day (members of the LGBTI community) can feel so calm, “they told Efe.

These two young women, under 20 years old, are not a couple, but great friends and members of the LGBTI community, whose situation in Panama, in the opinion of both, “has been improving but remains complicated.”

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In Panama, discrimination and stigma continue, and the rights of the sexually diverse community, such as civil unions or the right to gender identity, are ignored, leaders Ricardo Beteta and Franklyn Robinson told Efe.

“Obviously that’s why we love this day, because it’s the day we can be free,” reaffirmed Aurielis, who wore multicolored makeup in line with the global image of Pride Day.

Hundreds of people march as part of LGBTI+ Pride today, in Panama City (Panama). (EFE/Welcome Velasco/)

ACCEPTANCE AND RESPECT

Marisol, a mature woman with multicolored hair and tattoos on her back, assured Efe that she participates in the Pride demonstrations because she supports the rights of sexually diverse people, including her daughter.

“Every year I participate (in the Pride march), I support the movement for my daughter and for most of my friends. I think about inclusion and acceptance, and that is what I support, ”she asserted.

In the opinion of this mother, in Panama “progress” is being made, at least in the field of public opinion, in terms of LGBTI rights despite strong resistance from conservative sectors, represented by religious, civil and political groups.

We must promote “acceptance, more than anything, and rights. I fully support same-sex marriage” she added.

Hundreds of people march as part of the LGBTI+ Pride, in Panama City (Panama). (EFE/Welcome Velasco/)

DIVIDED MARCHES BUT WITH A COMMON MESSAGE

The LGBTI+ community celebrated this Saturday in Panama City its day of pride divided into two marches, but with the common demand that their rights be recognized in this country.

With the colors and music that characterize them, and highlighting the broad participation of youth, thousands of LGBTI and heterosexual people who support them marched through two different sectors of the capital, some summoned to the 18th LGBTQ+ Pride March and others to the World Pride Panama.

“We are suffering the mistreatment of the State,” said Robinson, president of World Pride Panama, who called for recognition in this country that “all families deserve respect and all families are equal.”

With the colors and music that characterize them, and highlighting the broad participation of youth, thousands of LGBTI and heterosexual people who support them marched through two different sectors of the capital, some summoned to the 18th LGBTQ+ Pride March and others to the World Pride Panama. (EFE/Welcome Velasco/)

Robinson demanded that the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) “take out of the drawer” the January 2018 ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CourtIDH), in which the countries of the Americas are urged to guarantee human rights of the sexually diverse population, including the union of people of the same sex.

“We need the State to recognize that sexual diversity exists and that we are subjects of rights,” said Beteta, leader of the New Men and Women Association of Panama and organizer of the 18th LGBTQ+ Pride March.

The Panamanian State must also recognize “gender identity and pass a gender identity law and work in depth on HIV prevention and sex education,” she added.

Christian, evangelical and Catholic groups in Panama have spoken out in defense of the traditional family and in rejection of equal marriage, gender identity and the pronouncement of the Inter-American Court, and even other rights that concern women such as sexual education in the schools to tame the serious problem of teenage pregnancy.

In the Supreme Court of Justice and in the Panamanian Electoral Tribunal, three cases of same-sex marriages celebrated abroad have been pending for several years, two of which seek to invalidate the Family Code and legalize same-sex marriages.

Source: Elcomercio