Daniel Herrera, 32, has emerged triumphant in the June 2 election for the presidency of the small town of Tanhuato, Michoacán, under the self-identification of a transgender woman, although she is not. Her argument is that she meets the non-discrimination quota for being part of the LGBT + community. The electoral authority and representatives of that sector do not think the same because, due to parity rules, his place was reserved for a woman and Herrera does not comply with gender self-determination if he wants. The municipal president of Tanhuato is shaping up to be part of a long list of simulations committed by the parties using the benefits that self-ascription and affirmative actions give them. In Michoacán alone there are eight men who have reached the same number of municipal presidencies due to gender parity quota as transgender women in the last elections.
Although these are local matters, the National Electoral Institute (INE) has reacted to the situation of alleged simulation. “I find an alleged usurpation inadmissible,” said counselor Claudia Zavala. “Parity is places that are reserved for women and if it is a homosexual man it is a man. Because here he says ‘I do not identify as a trans woman, I am homosexual’. So there they are usurping places that belong to women,” says the counselor. Although she clarifies that file by file must be analyzed and that, from now on, this and other cases are in the jurisdiction of the electoral courts.
Affirmative actions were established through an agreement in favor of people or groups in situations of discrimination with the objective of correcting the lack of representation, inclusion and equality in the enjoyment of their rights and freedoms. Meanwhile, self-ascription is about giving a vote of confidence to the parties and their candidates to recognize themselves within a community.
The elected municipal president of Tanhuato defends his candidacy and his victory in the position for which he was elected. “My job is to arrive representing a minority and also look after that minority. Regardless of whether the situation is being maximized, the idea of defending the rights of a group in a situation of discrimination is being fulfilled,” he says by phone. She insists that she is part of the LGBT+ community but evades the question of whether she is considered a trans woman. He turns around and puts territorial work in the town first. He asks that before questioning him, his history of discrimination that led him to defend his rights be known. “At work I felt discriminated against. It happened to me at work, there were two Daniels and they said ‘he is Daniel and he is Dani because he is joto, the diminutive of Dani because he relates to a girl,’” she says. For the third time he evades the question. “I am from the community and ultimately we are all from the community,” she insists. A day before, an audio was leaked in which she confesses that she is not a transsexual woman, although she does belong to the gay community.
Herrera seems not to know himself that he was nominated as a transgender woman. “Some representative of the community said that she invited us all [los hombres que ganaron la elección por paridad de género] to wear heels and a skirt. In my case, instead of requiring me to wear heels, they demand public policies in favor of the community.”
Frauds taking advantage of parity rules are not new. In September 2009 a group of women The Juanitas of the PAN, PRD and PT asked their federal deputies for leave to make way for their male substitutes. Seats that they obtained under the principle of parity, when the path for women to have equal participation in public positions was barely being paved. In 2018 came the Manuelitas, another group of 50 women who resigned from deputies and councilors to give them to men from their party, the Ecologist Green. Although the strategies have changed, the parties continue to resort to these practices.
In the Michoacán region, candidates for municipal presidencies from all parties, including Herrera, have apparently flouted the law: Alberto Orobio Arriaga, from Ziracuaretiro; José Enrique Mora, from Purépero, Jorge Estrada, from Ecuandureo and Rubén Torres from Charapan, all from the PAN, PRI and PRD. As well as: Apolonio Ureña, from Tumbiscatío, candidate for Morena; Octavio Chávez, from Lagunillas of the PT and PES and Martín Alexander Escalera, from the local party Más Michoacán in Peribán, have all won their municipalities as women, in this case transgender women, without presumably being so.
“We must review case by case, from the moment a homosexual man is placed in the place of a woman, of course they are monopolizing a place through fraud on agreements,” says Zavala. This newspaper searched for the president of the Electoral Institute of Michoacán, Ignacio Hurtado, without obtaining a response until press time. However, the courts will be the ones to resolve each case through the evidence presented to prove self-ascription.
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