Deputies of the State Congress held a meeting with representatives of LGBT community in Puerto Vallarta, with the intention of listening to their requests and building a legislative agenda to further human rights for this sector of the community.
At the meeting, convened by local deputies Héctor Pizano Ramos and Luis Ernesto Munguía, attended by about thirty people involved with the defense of Human Rights, equality and inclusion, they expressed their concerns about the “slowness” with which laws meant to protect the LGBT community had advanced in the state.
One of the main requests made was to classify biphobia, transphobia, lesbophobia, and homophobia as hate crimes. At the moment there is no law that classifies crimes or murder of someone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity as a hate crime. There was also a request to strengthen laws associated with marriage equality and gender identity.
In his speech, the deputy Luis Munguía González asked the LGBT + community for patience since on previous occasions the opposition to his party, identified as conservatives, rejected any issue that tries to defend the LGBT community.
Finally, both deputies committed themselves to the attendees of the meeting, pointed out that they would initiate the most viable concerns, such as gender identity and equal marriages, but they passed on the concerns of classifying crimes against the LGBT community as hate crimes, claiming such a move would require more investigation, although most of the western world already recognizes crimes based on the victim’s sexual orientation and gender identity as hate crimes. It’s unclear what the elected officials would need to investigate further to offer those protections.
