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Supervisors to send message urging protections for LGBT Salvadorans; community groups applaud action
Summary
A resolution introduced by Supervisor Campos calls on El Salvador’s newly elected government to ensure rights and protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Salvadorans; community groups and local advocates spoke in support.
Supervisor David Campos introduced a resolution urging the newly elected government of the Republic of El Salvador to protect the rights and dignity of LGBT Salvadorans. The sponsor framed the measure as consistent with San Francisco’s history of defending human rights and noted the city’s substantial Salvadoran-American community.
Campos described ongoing vulnerabilities faced by LGBT Salvadorans and said the resolution calls for El Salvador to ensure “the complete scope of rights and protections” for LGBT people. He cited concerns that incidents of violence against LGBT Salvadorans frequently go uninvestigated and victims often do not report incidents for fear of further targeting.
Speakers from community organizations supported the resolution. Larissa Dugan Cuadra of the Central American Resource Center told the board the resolution was an important first step and tied the matter to broader humanitarian concerns in the region. Anna Montano of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, who had recently returned from a fact-finding trip to El Salvador, read a community statement proposing specific reforms — including anti-discrimination protections, hate-crime laws, gender-identity recognition, and institutional policy changes for police and prisons — that Salvadoran LGBT advocates were urging the government to adopt.
The resolution was introduced on the floor and sponsors urged colleagues to join the board in sending a message to El Salvador; the meeting record shows the item introduced but does not record a final vote during the June meeting.
