(Photo by Haarón Álvarez/New Gay Times)
Gaby Ortiz, renowned trans stylist in Hidalgo, an unidentified trans woman in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, Vanesa, trans woman in Coatzacoalcos, Miriam Ríos activist and trans commissioner of the Movimiento Ciudadano political party in Michoacán, and Samantha Fonseca, a trans activist and human rights defender in Mexico City, have been murdered in the first 15 days of the year.
People belonging to LGBTTTIQ+ groups protested outside the National Palace against the escalation of violence against trans people and hate crimes.
Victoria Sámano, a trans activist, denounced the hate speeches of leaders, officials and public representatives targeting trans people and urged the president to condemn this violence.
“We demand that, in your capacity as representative of this country, you take a stand against the violence that trans people experience.” – Victoria Sámano, trans activist and founder of LLECA (Listening to the Street)
The National Observatory of Hate Crimes against LGBTQI+ People defines hate crimes as culturally founded and systematically and socially widespread behaviors of contempt against a person or group of people based on negative prejudice or stigma related to an undeserved disadvantage, and which has the effect of harming your fundamental rights and freedoms, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
“We are not only demonstrating for these deaths, we also demand that the Comprehensive Trans Law be approved as a matter of urgency, which seeks to influence education, housing, health and work for trans people. We demand that all these legislative initiatives that favor people of sexual diversity be unblocked. And that Morena, even though the majority in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, have remained silent, they have not done anything, they do not have a clear position against violence towards LGBTTTIQ+ people … even when they have boasted of being a left-wing and progressive party throughout the 6-year period and that they support vulnerable populations.” – Victoria Sámano
This wave of transfemicides occurs in a context of escalating violence and attacks against LGBTTTIQ+ people, including activist and public figures such as Nicté Chávez or Paola Suárez, and the proliferation of hate speech against trans women and LGBTTTIQ+ people by public officials. According to data from Letra Ese, in 2023 there were 58 murders of LGBTTTIQ+ people, 35 were trans women.
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