News & Events LGBT Rights in Latin America

Image

Javier Corrales,
Professor of Political Science

Same-sex marriage is now legal in Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, and in Mexico City and several Mexican states. Civil unions exist in several other countries.

“Some of the friendliest LGBT legislation in the world has been achieved in some Latin American countries,” says Javier Corrales, the Dwight W. Morrow 1895 Professor of Political Science. “At the same time, other countries in the Americas are very behind. And you still see homophobia and transphobia, sometimes in the same countries that have seen progress.”

Corrales, who co-directs the LGBT Rights in the Americas Timeline, an Amherst College-based digital history initiative, gives a political scientist’s perspective on these shifts.

In what ways do these changes defy political theory?

One conventional theory expects rights to emerge in wealthier countries. Absolutely true. But you also see progress in some not-so-rich countries, like Ecuador and Cuba, and you see a lack of progress in some higher-income countries, such as Venezuela and most English-speaking Caribbean nations. The second big argument is that this is likely to happen in places where religious practices are weaker, where secularism or anticlericalism is strong and where there are few evangelicals. That helps us understand Uruguay’s remarkable pro-LGBT legislation. But we also see expansion in countries that are very conservative and religious, like Colombia. Having said that, there are places where the Catholic Church and evangelicals have joined forces to block progress successfully. But the idea that same-sex marriage is impossible to do in the Catholic world is no longer tenable.

How do the new laws differ from those in the U.S.?

In the United States we’ve obtained most gay rights in the last five years. This started to happen at a time when public opinion was already turning significantly more tolerant. In many cases in Latin America it was the other way around. The legal changes came first. We don’t know whether the legal changes are going to help change public opinion, but Latin America proves that you don’t need to wait until society changes.

How do these laws change the way we view democracy?

If you compare where we were 20 years ago—the extent to which the topic was taboo, the extent to which public spaces (not just private households) were sites of open homophobia, the extent to which no serious politician would ever take publicly a pro-LGBT position—to where we are now, this is one of the most triumphant stories of democracy. With the odds against them so high, these victories in making many institutions and some politicians less homophobic make you think you can accomplish a lot in politics. Back in the ’80s the most people were hoping to get was access to AIDS medication and privacy.

What hasn’t changed?

Latin America is one of the most violent regions in the world. This is no longer  political violence as much as it is crime-based violence. In Latin America, barriers into the labor market for LGBT people are enormous, especially for gay men and transgendered people. Consequently, many of them live in poverty and are disproportionately exposed to street life, where crime is huge. So the crime wave in Latin America affects LGBT people especially. If you add lingering homophobia and transphobia, you see why violence against LGBT folks manifests itself more brutally and frequently. Ten days before Orlando there was a similar episode in Mexico. Chile, Colombia and Argentina, to name a few, have had cases that are very similar to our Mathew Shepard case—a nasty hate crime that shook the entire country. 

When and why did you begin to study LGBT rights?

This was never my main research area.  But as a political scientist and as a gay person, I became so impressed by the political achievements of the LGBT movement worldwide by the 2000s, that I decided to use my training in political science to see if I could help make sense of these major political developments. So in the late 2000s, I focused some research attention on this topic. I now devote a quarter of my time to this topic, and 10 years ago I was devoting zero.

We like to say that the liberal arts gives students the freedom to retool themselves, to change paths. The same goes for faculty members. At Amherst it was possible for me to decide, 10 years into my career, to study a new topic. It was possible to get College research funding, to teach classes in these subjects, to have students work with me. Amherst is also making an effort to recruit more students from Latin America and more students with global interests, which is vital for my research.  So this is also a statement on how Amherst College promotes creativity and discovery.