Mexico: Thousands Marched Asking for Justice for Dead LGBTQ+ Figure
On Monday night, thousands of Mexicans marched asking for justice for a non-binary magistrate the state prosecutor’s office said was found dead in their home.
The LGBTQ+ magistrate, Jesús Ociel Baena, had received death threats before dying. The state prosecutor’s office reported Baena’s body was discovered next to another in Aguascalientes city. Media outlets and LGBTQ+ identified the second body as belonging to Baena’s partner, Dorian Herrer.
Baena was the first openly non-binary person to have a Mexican judicial role in October 2022. In Mexico, people attacking those identifying as LGBTQ+ community members are relatively common.
At a news interview, state prosecutor Jesús Figueroa Ortega said that both bodies had wounds like those from a sharp object, such as a knife.
Ortega added, “There are no signs or indications to be able to determine that a third person other than the dead was at the site of the crime.” Mexican authorities suggested that Baena and Herrer had committed suicide, which sparked outrage amongst the LGBTQ+ community.
Calls for a Thorough Police Investigation
LGBTQ+ groups said authorities were attempting to brush off violence against their minority by suggesting the deaths were suicides.
LGBTQ+ rights group Letra S’s director, Alejandro Brito, said that Baena’s social media fame made them a target for abuse. She encouraged authorities to consider this visibility’s effect and “hate messages” Baena got in their investigation.
“They were a person who received many hate messages, and even threats of violence and death, and you can’t ignore that in these investigations,” Brito commented. “They, the magistrate, was breaking through the invisible barriers that closed in the nonbinary community,” the activist added.
In Mexico City’s center, thousands gathered to demand authorities investigate Baena and Herrer’s deaths enough. The protesters lit candles to honor the deaths and other LGBTQ+ violence victims. The crowd chanted “We won’t stay silent” and “Justice.”
A Life in Rainbow
Baena publicly supported LGBTQ+ rights, they wore heels, dresses, and waved rainbow flags in court buildings. In June, Baena posted on X, “I am a nonbinary person. I am not interested in being seen as either a woman or a man. This is an identity. It is mine, for me, and nobody else. Accept it.”
Last month, Mexico’s electoral court presented Baena with a certificate showing that the judicial official identified with the gender-neutral noun “maestre.” This presentation was a progressive move for the Spanish language, as most Spanish nouns fit into either feminine or masculine categories.
Despite these steps forward for Mexico’s official attitudes, Letra S said attackers have recently murdered at least 117 gay, lesbian, transgender, and nonbinary people in the country.
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