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Honduran Gay Activist Walter Trochez Assassinated
Walter Trochez, 25 years old, a well-known LGBT activist in Honduras who was an active member of the National Resistance Front against the coup d'etat there, was assassinated on the evening of December 13, shot dead by drive-by killers. Trochez, who had already been arrested and beaten for his sexual orientation after participating in a march against the coup, had been very active recently in documenting and publicizing homophobic killings and crimes committed by the forces behind the coup, which is believed to have been the motive for his murder. He had been trailed for weeks before his murder by thugs believed to be members of the state security forces.
In an open letter documenting this wave of political assassinations of Honduran queers he'd written last month entitled "Increase in hate crimes and homophobia towards LGTB as a result of the civic-religious-military coup in Honduras," Trochez had written that "Once again we say it is NOT ACCEPTABLE that in these past 4 months, during such a short period, 9 transexual and gay friends were violently killed, 6 in San Pedro Sula and 3 in Tegucigalpa." At the end of this open letter, Trochez declared that "As a revolutionary, I will always defend my people, even if it takes my life". Sadly, that's what happened. (Full text in Spanish of Trochez's open letter is at the end of this post).
American University Assistant Professor of Anthropology Adrienne Pine has translated into English on her blog a statement about the Trochez murder by the Centro de Investigación y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (CIPRODEH -- the Center for the Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights in Honduras), which you can find here"Recently he felt the direct threat of the fury of the irrationality, the reaction and the stupidity of the obsolete structural power that sadly today exists in Honduras. The repressive forces that serve the businessmen and kill Hondurans kidnapped him and warned him that he should silence himself, Walter, as was to be expected, said no. It was a relief to know that he bravely escaped from the grip of the beast and was it heartwarming to see him again in the streets this past Friday 11 of December when the force of the La Resistencia was felt in the streets, of course the compañero Tróchez headed the march of the pueblo (nation). Walter Tróchez was shot in betrayal this past December 13; such is the method of cowards..." (Full text in English of this statement is here.)
Amnesty International has issued a statement calling for an investigation of the murder, which you can read here.
Radio Mundo's web site has a good article, in English, on the murder here.
Walter Trochez's November 16 e-mail describing assassinations of Honduran LGBTers since the coup, in Spanish, is here.
9 Comments so far
Show AllI wonder if Rachel Maddow will cover this?
No. Gays are in general Obama-loving, rich yuippie liberals who like the new Honduran regime. Zelaya was one of those dangerous populists.
The price for Honduran immigrant maids for their digs in those fashionable rich white neighborhoods in NW DC will remain low.
Y'see. This is why the American LGBT community just ticks me off. While their all busy complaining that "OH my... I can't get the word marriage and Civil Unions are soo lame...oh me oh my, woe is me." Actual LGBT issues are going on elsewhere in the world. American LGBT knows nothing about struggle when compared to this kind of stuff. Maybe a couple weeks in Honduras for all of them would give them a picture of what true inequality feels like.
Granted the situation in the US is MUCH MUCH better, it is not perfect and I understand that. But, to go from reading some screaming queen blasting off because he doesn't want people to be able to get Civil Unions, then to read about this right afterwords...puts it all in perspective and even more instills how incredibly arrogant American's, in general, and the American LGBT community is.
I wonder if many of the mainstream LGBT groups will even cover this story.
You're right, basically, but put it in historical context. There used to be a gay left in this country. The gay liberation of the early '70s was radical and leftist and supportive of other struggles. In the '80s lesbians and gay men in this country were a large part of support for Central American revolutionary movements, for example. It all changed sometime in the early '90s. Now all that's visible is marriage and the military and the Human Rights Campaign. Other countries, particularly Latin American countries like Bolivia, for example, and Honduras, still have serious leftist lesbian and gay movements. Not that there aren't any individual gay people left in the US with intelligent, broad, progressive politics, but we're isolated from one another, with no organizations and no visibility. Doug Ireland, remember, who wrote the article, is an old gay leftie who hasn't given up -- and so am I and so are many friends of mine. Furthermore, I have the impression that there are many younger queers with good progressive politics working within political organizations who don't bother to be public about being queer because it just doesn't seem relevant to their political work.
"Y'see. This is why the American LGBT community just ticks me off. While their all busy complaining that "OH my... I can't get the word marriage and Civil Unions are soo lame...oh me oh my, woe is me." Actual LGBT issues are going on elsewhere in the world. American LGBT knows nothing about struggle when compared to this kind of stuff."
Yeah, ask Harvey Milk about "actual struggle."
The gay marriage issue is one of changing our society. How much larger do you want the struggle to be? What we are seeing, apparently worldwide, is an increasing level of hostility and homophobia against gays. I don't think this is random, I think it is a result of greater issues being pushed onto some of the most visible minorities. This happens when, as a result of less power held by the people, the people start to resemble their oppressors. At that point, we have a true fascist state.
Anyway, the American LGBT community knows of struggle. Maybe you could learn from them.
Y'see this is why American LGBT community is generally pissed off and disgusted by homophobic so-called progressives like you Andy. LGBT progressives in the US are heavily involved in every progressive movement in this country - environmental, political, health reform - you name it - movements of every kind.
We are also well aware of LGBT issues internationally - if you ever read progressive gay media you will see this quite clearly. Rachel Maddow for example has been covering the current "kill the gays" debacle in Uganda for instance, which the general "Progressive" media is not really talking about too much even though this issue goes far beyond simply a "gay" issue - with alarming ties to the "Family" - a bizarre religious cult that has infiltrated into our own national government.
We are there and involved but when it comes to protecting Gay civil rights here in our own country, our straight "allies" are largely silent. Where is the outrage from my straight progressive pals when I am categorized legally as a second class citizen? When my civil rights are put up to a popular vote? When religious groups with tax exempt status insert themselves front and center into a secular political process, pour millions of tax exempt dollars into spreading the most outrageous and disgusting lies about gay citizens? Where, Andy, is your outrage? Instead we get the same old crap from you - "oh you gays are just big complainers - why don't you stop whining and work on the REAL issues."
First of all my little friend, we are, have been and always will be working on ALL progressive issues - you just don't know this b/c you assume everyone you see out there is straight. This is the heterosexual assumption. But we are there in every group, every meeting, every march, every movement - just open up your tiny little mind and you will start to see us.
Yes, it is fantastic that we have made some progress here, that it is not quite as easy as it used to be to fire, evict, assault, beat, and kill gays as it used to be [although make no mistake all of these things still go on every day]. This is because of long hard struggles by our community to make this progress. But as long as we are legally, officially second class citizens, as long as there is a blatant and egregious conflation of church and state with no punishment or even much of a comment from folks like you Andy, this will be an extremely important civil rights issue here in the US and one worth fighting for. We will keep fighting. Will you join us for once, as we have been joining you in supporting the causes you deem important?
I hope so.
Are America's Banana Republicans at work in Honduras as in Uganda?
How can any human being buy anything from Chiquita or Dole after this?
Another victim of Obama's policies.
My reading of this is that these killings are more becasue their espousing of leftist politics rather than being LGBT.
Which brings up the question: How many non-gay activists are being murdered or dissapeared by this US recognized "democracy"?