Blog Post By: +Brandon Roman
Student Team: +Arli Christian, Anne Schaufele, +Ernesto Rodriguez, +Brandon Roman
Faculty Advisor: +Ali Beydoun
Our group of four students and a faculty advisor arrived on Saturday morning and have been actively involved in our efforts to support ALDES – Assistencia Legal para la Diversidad Sexual en El Salvador (Legal Support for Sexual Diversity in El Salvador). ALDES’s main project during our trip is a two-day conference hosted at la Universidad Centroamericana (Central American University): Felicidad y la Diversidad Sexual como Derechos Humanos. The conference is intended to educate people on the current situation for the LGBT community in El Salvador. In our efforts to help ALDES with this conference, we were tasked with helping them determine how to continue their advocacy going forward.
In our efforts to learn more about the situation for the LGBT community in El Salvador we arranged various meetings with government officials and community leaders to gather information. I was somewhat surprised (and very pleased) at how willing people were to meet with us and have a frank discussion about LGBT rights in El Salvador.
During the week we met with two
members of the United Nations Development Program in El Salvador, as well as
members of USAID El Salvador and the State Department in San Salvador.
To compliment our discussions at the U.N. and the U.S. Embassy, we also
met with the Director of the Office of Sexual Diversity within the Department
of Social Inclusion for El Salvador to gain a perspective on what those
officials within El Salvador’s government had to say about LGBT rights. Although the meetings with those outside
organizations struck somewhat of a different tone than the meeting with members
of El Salvador’s government, all of these meetings seemed to have a common
theme: although there is much work to do, there is hope for a positive and
lasting change with regard to LGBT rights in El Salvador. How to achieve that change is still widely
debated.
We also had the unique opportunity
to meet with Dr. Fortin Magaña, the Director of el Instituto de Medicina Legal
(the Institute of Legal Medicine). Dr.
Magaña was only recently reinstated after having been ousted by the government
for releasing statistics that contradicted with government statistics related
to the number of killings taking place, the cause of death of those who were
killed, etc. During this meeting, not
only did Dr. Magaña provide us with access to the Institute’s head
statistician, but he also took us on a tour of their facilities, including the
forensic lab, the morgue, and the office of missing persons.
After completing this preliminary research, we have the foundation necessary to begin compiling our ideas as to how to help ALDES best move forward with its advocacy efforts. What started off as simply researching how El Salvador’s transparency law could be used to positively impact its LGBT community has snowballed into something greater. In fact, the takeaway from this trip for me is that, while El Salvador has made some progress in supporting the LGBT community, there is much more work that needs to be done. Nevertheless, El Salvador seems poised and in a position to become a leader on LGBT rights in Central America. The central question, however, and the topic of our research going forward is how international parties can help organizations like ALDES facilitate this process.
Student Team: +Arli Christian, Anne Schaufele, +Ernesto Rodriguez, +Brandon Roman
Faculty Advisor: +Ali Beydoun
As both a gay and a Latino male, I
knew I had to participate in the Alternative Spring Break trip to support LGBT
rights in El Salvador. Having been here
for nearly a week now, this trip has been a meaningful and impactful experience
for me and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to participate.
 |
| Our team with Ana Montano, Director of ALDES, in front of the United Nations in San Salvador. |
Our group of four students and a faculty advisor arrived on Saturday morning and have been actively involved in our efforts to support ALDES – Assistencia Legal para la Diversidad Sexual en El Salvador (Legal Support for Sexual Diversity in El Salvador). ALDES’s main project during our trip is a two-day conference hosted at la Universidad Centroamericana (Central American University): Felicidad y la Diversidad Sexual como Derechos Humanos. The conference is intended to educate people on the current situation for the LGBT community in El Salvador. In our efforts to help ALDES with this conference, we were tasked with helping them determine how to continue their advocacy going forward.
In our efforts to learn more about the situation for the LGBT community in El Salvador we arranged various meetings with government officials and community leaders to gather information. I was somewhat surprised (and very pleased) at how willing people were to meet with us and have a frank discussion about LGBT rights in El Salvador.
 |
| At the Institute of Human Rights at Central American University |
We also had the unique opportunity
to meet with Dr. Fortin Magaña, the Director of el Instituto de Medicina Legal
(the Institute of Legal Medicine). Dr.
Magaña was only recently reinstated after having been ousted by the government
for releasing statistics that contradicted with government statistics related
to the number of killings taking place, the cause of death of those who were
killed, etc. During this meeting, not
only did Dr. Magaña provide us with access to the Institute’s head
statistician, but he also took us on a tour of their facilities, including the
forensic lab, the morgue, and the office of missing persons. After completing this preliminary research, we have the foundation necessary to begin compiling our ideas as to how to help ALDES best move forward with its advocacy efforts. What started off as simply researching how El Salvador’s transparency law could be used to positively impact its LGBT community has snowballed into something greater. In fact, the takeaway from this trip for me is that, while El Salvador has made some progress in supporting the LGBT community, there is much more work that needs to be done. Nevertheless, El Salvador seems poised and in a position to become a leader on LGBT rights in Central America. The central question, however, and the topic of our research going forward is how international parties can help organizations like ALDES facilitate this process.
