Sexual diversity activists protested in Peru\u2019s capital in front of the health ministry Friday to demand that the government repeal a decree that characterises seven gender identities, including transgenderism, as \u201cmental illnesses.\u201d Protesters also gathered outside the Peruvian Embassy in Ecuador\u2019s capital, Quito. The demonstrations coincided with the International Day Against Homophobia, celebrated since 2005 to mark May 17, 1990, when homosexuality \u2013 then considered a mental illness \u2013 was removed from the World Health Organisation\u2019s International Classification of Diseases.<\/p>\n
In Lima, hundreds protested last week\u2019s decree by President Dina Boluarte\u2019s administration. The Ministry of Health said the action would guarantee \u201ccomprehensive mental health care coverage\u201d to those affiliated with public, private or mixed health plans. Peru does not recognise same-sex marriage. Demonstrators carried signs with a variety of messages, among them \u201cMy life is freedom, not a disorder,\u201d \u201cHealth is not legislated in the past,\u201d \u201cThe disease is you, transphobia kills\u201d and \u201cNo diversity with Dina.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several people beat on drums and others chanted, \u201cTrans people are love.\u201d \u201cWe have had conservative governments for many years. We had military governments, then right-wing governments linked to Catholic and evangelical churches, so the position regarding us they have revived again,\u201d said Gia Cruzado, a transgender woman and writer. \u201cThe decree is a step backwards and is a way to continue closing the doors to progress for our community,\u201d Cruzado said.<\/p>\n
Gahela Cari, a transgender woman who unsuccessfully ran for congress in 2021, said that \u201cbeing gay, lesbian, non-binary or bisexual is not a disease, it is a human condition.\u201d In Ecuador, dozens of members of a collective defending the rights of the LGTBQ+ community marched to Peru\u2019s embassy. They staged a sit-in outside while waving flags and signed declaring that \u201cbeing trans is not a disease.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sexual diversity activists protested in Peru\u2019s capital in front of the health ministry Friday to demand that the government repeal\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":44632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[10109,14161,10148,11075,14163,2613,14162,3350,3324,1748],"class_list":["post-44631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-conservatives","tag-gender-identities","tag-government","tag-health-ministry","tag-international-day-against-homophobia","tag-lgbtqia-community","tag-mental-illness","tag-peru","tag-peruvian-president-dina-boluarte","tag-protests"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}