As part of its commemoration of May 17, the National Day Against Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, the Foreign Ministry’s Institute for Mexicans Abroad (IME) reports the hiring of a transgender woman as Director of Gender Equality and Inclusion.
In an event held today at the Foreign Ministry, IME head Luis Gutiérrez Reyes told an audience of civil society activists that including a trans official in the IME is part of the policy of respect and inclusion towards the LGBTQ community conducted by the Foreign Ministry, and especially by Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard.
“This sends a clear message of consistency to the world. It is a call for inclusion and the need of groups that have been marginalized and left on the sidelines by conservative regulatory visions for development,” said Gutiérrez Reyes.
He said that the Foreign Ministry, and particularly the IME, would continue to listen to the rainbow diaspora and work for #Diversity Without Borders, which is strengthened when people of diverse sexuality are included.
The President of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (Conapred), Claudia Olivia Morales Reza, said that in Mexico there is a huge inequality gap, and that the gap widens even more for people of diverse sexuality. Therefore, this day vindicates those who have been mistreated and even murdered. She said that, as public officials, much remains to be done so that people can express themselves freely.
“Discrimination hurts lives and escalates to self-harm and suicide; phobias escalate to hate crimes,” Morales Reza said. “It is up to all of us to make visible and recognize trans and diverse people because what is named, exists.”
The INEGI Director General of Communication, Public Information Service and Institutional Relations, Julieta Brambila Ramírez, reviewed the history that reflects the vulnerability the LGBTQ+ community has experienced in Mexico, saying that one in 20 people in our country belongs to the rainbow community. Half are under 24 years of age and 85% live with some emotional problem, which is why INEGI will continue to share statistical information that allows this population to receive better care.
Director General of Consular Services Jaime Vázquez Bracho highlighted the actions the Foreign Ministry has taken on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community, such as changing their birth certificates or consular ID cards in Mexico’s consulates. This is the Mexican government’s first non-binary document.
Lastly, the new IME Director of Gender Equality and Inclusion, Gloria Davenport Fentanes, welcomed the fact that the rainbow diaspora continues to gain more rights, saying that the IME will flourish and continue the work of inclusion, recognition, support and feminism as it has been doing, in which no individual will be excluded.
The civil organizations attending the event included the Feminist Movement of Diverse Women, the College of Feminist Knowledge, Historical Debt: Senior Trans Women, the Afro-descendant Women’s Network, the Rainbow Movement of Mexico, We Exist: Trans Men and Yaaj México.
Gloria Davenport Fentanes holds a degree in Public Administration and Management and has studies in Non-Discrimination Law from the UNAM Institute of Legal Research, and in Gender from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León. She has authored books and an essay entitled “Democracia TTTrans,” edited by the Mexico City Electoral Institute. In 2006 she was the first transgender official in history when she joined the National Center for the Prevention of HIV AIDS (Censida).
As a feminist, she was the first vice president of the first Women’s Parliament of the Mexico City Congress, and founded and directed the Office for Sexual Diversity in Pachuca, Hidalgo, during the “Violet Transition,” a municipal council made up of women in 2020.
