MEET JAIME PARADA HOYT: LGBT rights activist became the first openly gay political candidate elected in Chile

Jaime Parada Hoyl, spokesperson for the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation

¨A Chilean LGBT rights activist late last month became the first openly gay political candidate elected in the South American country.

Jaime Parada Hoyl, spokesperson for the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, on Oct. 28 won a seat on the municipal council in Providencia, a wealthy enclave of Santiago, the country’s capital. The area is one of the South American country’s wealthiest and most conservative areas.

Josefa Errázuriz, who backed Parada and appeared in one of his campaign ads, defeated long-time Providencial Mayor Cristián Labbé, a retired colonel who was security agent for the secret police that operated during the first four years of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship that began in 1973.

Parada also mocked Labbé as a homophobe in a web ad his campaign produced.

“Labbé symbolizes what we don’t want for Providencia: Entitled, exclusion and a dark past in the dictatorship’s intelligence services,” says the spot. “That is why we honor him with this ‘tribute.’”
Parada further described Labbé as a “recalcitrant fascist” during an interview with the Washington Blade on Nov. 19.

“We did not just present ourselves as gay in the election,” he said when asked about his historic election. “We put forth a platform that had a lot to do with a political agenda, and that is why our campaign had an impact. It had a lot to do with sexual diversity and discrimination in general. It was not something we would have been able to imagine with the setbacks of a few years ago. And with this opportunity we can communicate the contrary.”

Parada became a prominent figure in Chile’s growing LGBT rights movement earlier this year after a group of self-described neo-Nazis allegedly beat Daniel Zamudio to death in a Santiago park because he was gay...¨ HERE

Thanks to the Washington Blade, sidebar
Thanks to Jaime Parada Hoyl
Thanks to The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation