BelloThe lives and deaths of transgender Latin Americans

A QUARTER of a century ago the town of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital of Chiapas state in Mexico’s deep south, was the setting of a spate of horrific killings of transgender prostitutes. Nine of them were murdered in two years, shot execution-style with up to a dozen bullets from high-calibre revolvers. Police claimed that in two cases they were murdered after having had sex with their killers.

The deaths caused a stir in Mexico, not least because of speculation that a police death squad was involved and because the authorities framed clearly innocent people. The Mexican interior minister at the time, Patrocinio González, when previously governor of Chiapas, had closed down discos frequented by the sex workers, forcing them onto the street. (Mr González is the nephew of the priest-baiting governor of a neighbouring state who was the model for a character in Graham Greene’s novel “The Power and the Glory”.) “We are all scared now, but it’s what we live from,” said one prostitute, called Jessica. Six months later the Zapatista rising elsewhere in Chiapas grabbed global headlines. The country stopped paying attention to dead transgender people.

Bello was reminded of his reporting trip to cover that long-ago outrage by “A Fantastic Woman”, a Chilean film which has just won an Oscar. Its protagonist is Marina, a trans woman (someone who has transitioned from male to female) who has a conventional life as a waitress and aspiring classical singer. It tells the story of what happens when her lover, an older businessman with whom she lives, dies suddenly. The film is remarkable for Marina’s dignity in the face of psychological violence. This derives from the fear her transgressive identity provokes. “What are you?” spits the dead man’s son.

In interviews Daniela Vega, the film’s star, who is herself a trans woman, says optimistically that attitudes are changing in Chile, until recently a socially conservative country. That applies more broadly. A survey last year by ILGA, a pressure group, found that some 70% of respondents in Latin America agreed that gays and trans people should enjoy the same legal rights as anyone else, the highest figure anywhere. “The region has seen huge change in terms of its willingness to talk about this,” says Javier Corrales, a political scientist at Amherst College in Massachusetts.

Some countries have gone beyond talking. Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia are among only a handful in the world that have approved measures allowing citizens to change their gender on their identity documents without having to undergo surgery or obtain a doctor’s authorisation. This is a priority for transgender activists. Having the “wrong” legal identity leads to harassment and also makes it harder to get jobs. The city government of Buenos Aires has opened the first support centre for transgender people in Latin America.

It is a paradox that, as Mr Corrales puts it, “groundbreaking innovations in public policy coexist with atavistic attitudes” in Latin America. Governments’ willingness to extend human rights into the field of gender has prompted a backlash led by religious groups, both evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics. And that may cause continuing violence.

Even a quarter-century on, the Tuxtla Gutiérrez killings are probably more representative of the world of transgender Latin Americans than is Ms Vega. A report in 2015 by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights claims that the average life expectancy for trans people in the region is just 35 years (compared with 75 for the population as a whole). Another study found that four-fifths of murders of trans people take place in Latin America.

What explains that? Many trans people face rejection by their families, and thus poverty. That may push them into sex work. Transgender prostitutes are visible on the streets of many Latin American cities. They are both used and abused by men, including police. In some cases, machismo may mask homosexual feelings of which the men are ashamed. And Latin America is a violent place.

Critics sometimes complain that the demands of the LGBT lobby are burdened by political correctness. A legislative proposal in Uruguay would establish a quota for trans people in public employment. Courts in the region have sometimes gone far ahead of public opinion in, for example, legitimising gay rights. Many people find it hard to cope with the questioning of sexual identity. That does not weaken the moral force of trans people’s fundamental demand for recognition of their humanity. “I am of flesh and blood,” Marina coolly answers one of her interrogators in the film. If “A Fantastic Woman” makes that more widely accepted, it will deserve a bigger prize than an Oscar.