Gay El Salvador National Assembly candidate makes history
Editor’s note: The Washington Blade published a Spanish version of this story on Aug. 7.
SAN
SALVADOR, El Salvador — A groundbreaking El Salvador National Assembly
candidate hopes to make history as the first openly gay man elected to the
country’s legislative body.
Erick Iván Ortiz is among the candidates that members of Nuestro Tiempo, a new political party, have chosen to run in the National Assembly elections that are scheduled to take place on Feb. 28, 2021.
Ortiz, 29,
has an economics degree from the Higher School of Economics and Business in El
Salvador. He also studied human rights at Luis Amigó Catholic University in
Medellín, Colombia, and participated in a social leadership development course
at George Mason University.
Ortiz told the Blade his social activism began a decade ago with a specific focus of defending democracy, promoting institutions and transparency and young people’s participation in politics, among other issues.
“[My work] began in a very difficult context for El Salvador because it was a moment in which we were facing an attack on democracy due to the attempt to tie up the Constitutional Court,” said Ortiz. “We joined forces with different sectors of the population to make ourselves clear, and at that young age I saw myself as an agent of change.”
Following the 2014 presidential campaign in which LGBTQ issues were used in a negative way, Ortiz, along with other people who were uncomfortable with what happened, decided to organize themselves. They formed Colectivo Normal in 2015.
“The
collective was born under the analysis that the problem with our society is cultural,”
he said. “We have a sexist, violent and homophobic society because this is
the social construction that has been made.”
Colectivo
Normal has since used cultural and political advocacy to advance their cause,
using the arts as a strategy to spark new conversations in order to change the
narratives around the LGBTQ community. After a process of deconstruction and
constant learning within the collective, members met with different LGBTQ
organizations in a round table in which the Salvadoran LGBTI Federation was
created.
“I have
been able to train alongside El Salvador’s best trans activists like Karla
Avelar, Karla Guevara, Ambar Alfaro, Paty Hernández, among other people, and
better myself,” Ortiz told the Blade.
Advancing a human rights agenda
Joining a
political party is nothing new for Ortiz.
He was previously
part of the right-wing Republican Nationalist Alliance (ARENA) party’s youth
wing, but Ortiz made his priorities clear.
“The
challenge is not to speak with those who are convinced, but to speak where
things are more complicated,” he said. “It was important to have a
partisan spokesperson to generate an internal conversation around a specific
issue.”
Ortiz
explained his project within ARENA came to an end and he decided to resign at
the same time because his innovative plans to generate policy changes did not
align with the party’s vision.
“Now I have decided to join Nuestro Tiempo, because it is a party that includes diversity as one of its seven tenets,” Ortiz told the Blade. “In the face of an openly anti-rights government that has made us invisible and has downplayed LGBTI issues, I decided to take the leap and take the reigns of our representation and get involved in the front lines of politics.”
In El Salvador, as in many other Latin American countries, there is a historic invisibility with respect to LGBTQ political representation. Ortiz said one cannot depend only on promises from parties that do not handle the issue well.
“The only thing we are asking for is equal rights,” he told the Blade. “We don’t want special rights. It is about guaranteeing access to justice, fighting impunity towards hate crimes, guaranteeing there is no discrimination in the labor sector, in health services and education, to name a few.”
“The
LGBTI struggle, at the end of the day, is about fighting for an El Salvador
that is more inclusive, fairer and more peaceful,” he added.
The
coronavirus pandemic has made the beginning of Ortiz’s campaign challenging for
him and for his team. Ortiz’s campaign will use the internet to announce his
platform and legislative proposals.
Ortiz told the Blade they include a national anti-discrimination law that would include all Salvadorans who have been historically marginalized. Another of Ortiz’s proposals would legalize marijuana as a way to generate new income for the State and to balance public finances while dismantling the black market at the same time.
Ortiz said
he will work on the issue of mental health, given the history of conflict
through which the country has lived and the insecurity with which it has
experienced for years. Ortiz added he considers it necessary to rebuild the
social safety net in a comprehensive way that protects vulnerable Salvadorans.
“The
programmatic proposal will be consultative, something that will be built with
other people and will therefore be able to identify which ideas the citizenry needs
to be implemented,” he said.
Short and long-term challenges
“My
biggest concern at the moment is the empowerment of the LGBTI community with
respect to the current situation,” said Ortiz. “My proposal is to put
the LGBTI community at the center of the electoral political proposal,
something that has not been done before. This will only be possible with the
support and unity of the LGBTI movement.”
Ortiz said
now is the right time to put aside differences as a movement and build upon a
base of common ground that includes non-discrimination and to clarify any
doubts with regard to them.
“The
2021 Legislative Assembly’s composition is a long-term challenge that worries
me,” said Ortiz. “We will have a more conservative relationship than
the one we currently have, because polls indicate a party like Nuevas Ideas
that has proven itself to be openly anti-rights will be in the majority, and
this will be added to the traditional conservatism of ARENA, PCN, PDC and also
now of VAMOS as a political party.”
This
scenario would leave in a marked minority the parties and initiatives that are
against the anti-rights proposal being configured.
Ortiz says
it would be a big challenge to face an ultra-conservative block in the National
Assembly if he were elected. Ortiz adds existing communication channels can be
used to advocate from a seat within the legislative body.
Ortiz in his ticket will include Gabriela Martino, a proud mother of a gay son who is an LGBTQ rights activist. Martino has experienced first hand how painful the discrimination a child can face in education and family settings, among others.
“Gabriela
is a woman who is very committed to our project, because she also has a voice
that speaks from being a straight mother who is proud of her children, of her
family and who thinks it is convinced that no boy or girl should spend their
childhood suffering from discrimination or violence,” says Ortiz.
Ortiz says
he has the support of Nuestro Tiempo, given he did not end up with a bad
position on the list of candidates after the internal elections. Ortiz tells
the Blade his position demonstrates the commitment the party has on the issue
of inclusion.
“I
feel an enormous responsibility with this candidacy, because it will be an
earthquake for society and therefore bolster who we are,” he said. “I
am not possibly going to fully represent all segments of the LGBTI community,
but yes, my voice is going to represent the LGBTI voice in the political
agenda.”
“We
all need to be able to break this glass ceiling that women broke decades ago
and to ensure that my candidacy will not be the last one and that each leader
there is will be empowered and be able to be those agents of change that
society needs,” he concludes.
Published at Sun, 09 Aug 2020 01:40:28 +0000