Puerto Rico’s LGBT community has suffered a devastating slew of murders in the last year and a half – some directly targeted, others so recent that shockwaves are still being felt throughout the island and beyond.
Besides the slain eighteen, countless other Puerto Rican LGBT individuals have faced attacks and discrimination as a result of their sexual orientation. But religious and political officials in the area have remained predominantly silent – a tactic that many advocates believe is connected to the anti-LGBT rhetoric common among Puerto Rico’s most vocal leaders.
Michael Lavers, a journalist for Colorlines, explains in a recent article that political figures including Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz and Governor Luis Fortuño have largely refrained from commenting on the virulently anti-gay statements offered up by Puerto Rican religious officials – influential individuals like the Rev. Wanda Rolon, who greeted singer Ricky Martin’s coming-out announcement by labeling the pop star “an ambassador from hell,” and Cardinal Luis Aponte Martinez, who accused Martin of promoting the “aberration” of homosexuality.
Pedro Julio Serrano, a National Gay and Lesbian Task Force representative and founder of the island’s LGBT rights group Puerto Rico Tod@s, told Colorlines that, as a native Puerto Rican, the current state of anti-gay violence and subsequent fear and risk effecting the LGBT community is “wrenching.” Serrano explains that both Puerto Rican LGBT advocates and national leaders have called upon authorities to firmly and effectively address the hatred and danger sweeping through Puerto Rico; but despite support from New York congressional leaders and city council members, island officials consistently avoid either comment, media interaction or dialogue in the wake of each mounting act of violence against the LGBT community.
“When we have silence from the governor,” Serrano said, “ that is also implicit in the violence. The message that the heads of government are sending is that our lives aren’t worth it.”
Despite legal provisions for addressing both sexual orientation and gender identity-related hate crimes, activists like Serrano note that local security forces rarely enforce them. A recent meeting between LGBT activists, the Puerto Rican Attorney General, the Police Chief and other state prosecutors resulted in pledges to uphold prosecutorial protocol for hate crimes, and to train incoming officers in handling such violence in the future. However, real change will also require the governor’s cooperation – something Serrano hopes to achieve through ties to the police force and, if necessary, mounting pressure caused by increased publicity and public outrage.
As Serrano explained to Lavers, “the pressure is definitely working:” and despite the horrific ordeal undergone by many LGBT individuals and their families over the last eighteen months, people are finally paying attention and, at last, “things are moving forward.”
