You are on page 1of 2

Cristosal Global School

Acompaniment of LGBT Community for Justice and Equality


LGBT Rights Context in El Salvador
In El Salvador and the other countries belonging to the Anglican Church in Central
America, or IARCA (its Spanish acronym), hiding ones homosexual identity remains
very common; the LGBT community suffers violence, threats and discrimination, the
latter rooted in deeply held Roman Catholic and evangelical christian teachings.
Homophobia, heterosexism and machismo, the cultural attitudes driving the deeply
held societal beliefs that fuel hatred and discrimination in El Salvador, are what
human rights organizations, including Cristosal and the churchs sexual diversity
ministry are working to change.
Since 2009, the Sexual Diversity Ministry of the Anglican-Episcopal Church of El
Salvador has become a point of encounter almost like a safe haven for those whose
churches have turn their backs on them and are yet seeking to keep a close
relationship to God.
According to Bishop Gene Robinson, who visited El Salvador with Cristosals Global
School during the summer of 2014 In the United States the church in many ways is
playing a game of catch up; were sort of the last to come along, whereas here in El
Salvador the culture is overwhelmingly judgmental and condemnatory toward LGBT
people and its the church here who is leading what I believe will become a
nationwide effort to expand and include LGBT people in the life of society, but
means they are up against much greater odds.
Cristosals Involvement
Foundation Cristosal as a Human Rights organization has always sided with those
groups who have been excluded by society and find it harder to access to equality
and their basic human rights. This year 2014, has marked the beginning of a closer
relationship with the LGBT community of El Salvador and its growing every day.
During the summer of 2014, our global school program approached for the first time
ever the subject of inclusive ministry and the defense of LGBT Rights from a
theological perspective. The Global School aims to engage individuals and
communities from North and Latin America in dialogue, shared learning and
capacity building to catalyze human rights and community development work.

In El Salvador advocacy for LGBT rights and opening spaces to discuss this issue
from a Human Rights perspective is particularly important given the highly
conservative context of the country, this is not a topic that is frequently discussed in
public. Our goal as a program is to continue this work every year, opening
opportunities for dialogue between different actors in the public sphere, for
example by hosting open events such as forums to bring attention to the situation of
discrimination against LGBT persons in El Salvador with the main goal of building
solutions together with the Salvadoran people.
Another initiative that we are pushing this year is the use of state mechanisms for
the protection of Human Rights. Together with Bessy Rios, a human rights lawyer
and activist and Fundacion de la Mano Contigo Cristosal is promoting an alliance
of LGBT organizations that usually work separately to come together and access the
judicial system demanding the correct interpretation of the term equality that
sadly in El Salvador is still an ambiguous term for many that may or may not include
LGBT persons.
Before the end of 2014, specifically in the eve of international human rights day,
Cristosal and the LGBT movement of El Salvador will present to the highest court in
the country, the constitutional chamber, three claims against the State for the
implicit promotion of discrimination against LGBT persons currently present in
Salvadoran law. This will be the first time in the last decade that the LGBT
organizations have come together to present an action of this nature, in a way
following a world trend of searching from equality through the courtrooms.

You might also like