PERU: Leaders from Latin America's lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex community meet in Lima for the Inaugural Meeting of LGBTI Political Leadership in Latin America and the Caribbean

Record ID: 276841

  • Title: PERU: Leaders from Latin America's lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex community meet in Lima for the Inaugural Meeting of LGBTI Political Leadership in Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Date: 5th September 2014
  • Summary: LIMA, PERU (SEPTEMBER 04, 2014) (REUTERS) GENERAL OF THE FIRST MEETING OF THE LGBTI POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN CONFERENCE PANELLIST AND THE INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM MANAGER AT GAY AND LESBIAN VICTORY FUND AND INSTITUTE, LUIS ABOLAFIA, SPEAKING VARIOUS OF THE FORUM AND PANELLISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CONFERENCE PANELLIST AND THE INTERNATIONAL PR
  • Embargoed: 20th September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Peru
  • Country: Peru
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVADF0NO4Q2L881LDN997TU4MXB1
  • Story Text: Some 200 leaders from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) community met in Lima on Thursday (September 4) for the start of the Inaugural Meeting of LGBTI Political Leadership in Latin America and the Caribbean.
    The conference was billed as an event where community leaders from throughout the region could come together to reflect, share experiences and ideas of the progress and challenges the LGBTI community faces in Latin America today with the aims of getting more LGBTI people in government positions.
    Among the more than 300 participants expected to take part in the conference, which runs here through Saturday (September 6), are LGBTI elected or appointed officials, leaders from political parties, political candidates or prospective candidates and other allies and LGBTI leaders in the public and corporate world who promote diversity in the region's political systems.
    Luis Abolafia, the international program manager at the Washington-based Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund & Institute, who spoke at the first day of the conference, said he hoped the meeting would encourage more LGBTI people to get involved in the political process.

    "The idea of this forum is to push for the political participation of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans people in Latin American and the Caribbean to participate, so they get involved, in the democratic institutions and so that they decide to run as candidates in larger numbers," Abolafia said.
    A former city assemblyman from Bolivia, Ronald Cespedes, said the meeting gave LGBTI leaders a forum to come together and share ideas as they look to influence politics.

    "I am very excited about this International Meeting of LGBTI Political Leadership because it is an opportunity where we, as Latin Americans and people from the Caribbean, can meet and speak to each other about our political systems on a continental level and in this sense, I think it is very important that we have these places to meet and speak to each other," Cespedes said.
    According to its official website, the official goal of the Inaugural Meeting of LGBTI Political Leadership in Latin America and the Caribbean is to "promote and increase awareness of the political participation of the LGBTI population in the democratic institutions of their states" as well as in international human rights systems.
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