18 Killed in Wave of Homophobic Violence in Puerto Rico

[marmar]

18 Killed in Wave of Homophobic Violence in Puerto Rico


In the past year and a half, 18 LGBT individuals have been killed in Puerto Rico. Those murders include a frightening surge in violence over the past week, in which three people were found murdered in the span of 36 hours.

“We haven’t seen this spike in violence against LGBT people since the ’80s, when we had a serial killer who killed 27 gay men,” said Pedro Julio Serrano, communications manger for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force who’s currently working from the island.

The details of the crimes are grim, according to a press release from the Task Force. On Saturday, June 4, Alejandro Ponce Ponce was found stabbed to death. Then on Monday, Karlota Gómez Sánchez, a transgender woman, was shot to death in Santurce. On Tuesday, Ramón Salgado was found dead near a highway in Humacao. The New Civil Rights Movement has compiled a list of all 18 victims over the past year and a half. That list includes the high-profile murder of 19-year-old Jorge Steven López Mercado, whose dismembered body was found alongside a desolate road in November 2009. Though a suspect was eventually convicted in that case, authorities have been much slower to investigate similar crimes.

In the wake of these attacks, LGBT activists and allies on the island and in the mainland United States are rallying to address both the short and long term crises that face Puerto Rico’s queer community. First, they’re calling for authorities to investigate the crimes under the island’s decade-old hate crimes law, which includes protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. Second, they’re calling for an end to anti-gay rhetoric from some of the island’s high-ranking conservative lawmakers and religious leaders, who activists allege are inciting a climate of hate. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/612960/18_killed_in_wave_of_homophobic_violence_in_puerto_rico/

[wellstone dem]

1. This is a direct result of the hate that is sanctioned by

the willingness to even debate whether a particular class of people is entitled to civil rights.

[xchrom]

2. +1