Chile’s first trans deputy on fighting for LGBTQ+ rights: “I feel very prepared”

March 14, 2022

“Not only do I come to represent feminists and sexual dissidence, but also a vast majority that wants changes. I…believe in a future in which Chile guarantees social rights…and where we are freer and more equal than today, when there is still so much inequality,”

—Emilia Schneider, Deputy for District 10 of Santiago de Chile.

Photo: Gay Times UK

The gist:

When asked how she feels being the first trans deputy in Chile, Emilia Schneider responded that there is:

A tremendous pride and a tremendous responsibility…We have a task of reparation for the companions who paved the way and who have not been able to enjoy these rights, as well as a mandate for the future…to be able to contribute so that future generations,..do not experience the same violence, discrimination and precariousness that we have experienced.

In another interview she also said, “Today the security, dignity and integrity of the rights of the LGTBI community and women are at stake. The far-right seeks fear to prevail, but we have to make hope prevail, the same one…that has prevailed in this last decade of mobilisations.”

Schneider says her interest in politics “arises from a personal question, from trying to find answers to violence and discrimination that I have experienced as part of sexual diversity…and also my activism in student mobilizations.”

Many in newly elected President Boric’s party (he is the youngest Chilean President) rose through student social movement as well. “We are writing a new Constitution to finally end the legacy of the dictatorship.”

It must be understood that the demands of the LGBTI community do not differ much from those of the rest of the people. We demand the right to a decent job, to decent health, to public education, basically, to have access to full citizenship rights.

Photo of Emilia Schneider: Gay Times UK + YouTube CNN Chile

Connect with the Gay Times interview here.