An advocacy group in Chile released a report recently indicating that 2024 was a “year of regression” for LGBTQ+ rights in the country.
The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh)’s 23rd Sexual and Gender Diversity Human Rights report noted that LGBTQ rights are regressing for the first time since Chile became a democracy in 1990.
The report indicates that around 23.5 percent of human rights violations against LGBTQ people over the last two decades occurred in 2024, with a total of 2,847 discrimination reports recorded. That’s a 78.7% increase from 2023. The people most affected was the trans community with a 464.6% increase in discrimination cases compared to 2023. According to the Washington Blade, the growing influence of the far right has contributed greatly to the deterioration of LGBTQ+ rights across the country.
Movilh calls out the executive and judicial branches of Chile’s government, emphasizing the government’s ban on use of public funds for gender-affirming treatments for minors, and the refusal to classify the murder of a trans woman as a femicide by the Oral Criminal Trial Court of San Antonio.
Today, regions in Chile including Valparaíso, Metropolitana and Biobío suffer the highest number of discrimination complaints. In response, advocacy groups have pumped up the volume on efforts to denounce violence. Yet, Chile still faces high rates of LGBTQ+ discrimination and femicide.
“We are seeing a reversal of rights that cost decades of struggle,” the report warns. “If the State does not act urgently, we run the risk of discrimination and violence becoming institutionalized.”
