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Trans-gendered activist runs for Congress

By Manuel Rueda, Editorial Director

CALI - Monday, March 8, 2010

As the country prepares for the March 14^th congressional elections colorful banners advertising dozens of candidates for the senate and house of representatives hang over the streets of Colombia´s third largest city.

One of the banners features a fit woman in a gray bikini top lying down in a suggestive pose that is reminiscent of a beer commercial. 

She looks at the camera with a sexy glance and incites passersby  to “liberate their opinion” inviting them to write to latranx_alacamara@hotmail.com for more information on the campaign.

Shelcy Sanchez or “la tranx” is a man who decided to become a woman at the age of 16 and could now make history by becoming Colombia´s first trans-gendered member of congress.

Sanchez is a former sex worker and gay rights activist whose career in public service began when she started to organize public health campaigns in Cali´s prostitution zones. 

She says she wants to make  the problems faced by the LGBT community in Colombia “more visible” and challenge social prejudices that bar transsexuals from acceding to most jobs in this country, emphasizing that she “decided to run” to show that “ we – trans-gendered people -- were not only born to be sex workers and work in beauty salons.”

Sanchez says, that if elected, she would promote liberal initiatives like a referendum on gay marriage, legalizing prostitution, and securing a permanent seat in Colombia´s congress for representatives of the LGBT community. 

She is running for a house seat for Colombia´s Liberal Party and she conducts joint campaign events with senate candidate Sigifredo Lopez, a former FARC hostage, who enjoys great popularity in Sanchez´s home State of Valle del Cauca and whose campaign slogan is “liberate your vote.”

However, Sanchez´s campaign has been hampered by a recent wave of death threats and attacks from unidentified groups, according to campaign manager Sandra Navarro.

“On Sunday February 28^th our only car was taken from us at gunpoint after armed men intercepted us,” she says ”they threatened us, took our contacts book, and told us not to get involved in issues that do not concern us.”

Despite the attacks Sanchez says she will continue to campaign and she is hoping to get enough votes to become the first openly declared LGBT member of congress by securing free media appearances and canvassing permanently in Cali´s gay districts.

In Colombia however, money is also needed to win elections, and Sanchez, who lacks connections with the private sector, has only raised 4,000 dollars for her campaign, while her main opponents have ten or twenty times more funds.

Journalist Selimo Sinisterra, a black man from one of Cali´s poorest neighborhoods, unsuccessfully ran for the Cali city council in the last elections.

After interviewing Sanchez on a local TV show, he talked about her possibilities.

“Without Money it´s very hard to reach any office in Colombia,” he said, adding that “most people” in the country are used to receiving something in exchange for their vote whether its “money, favors, or a bag of cement.”

Congressional elections in Colombia usually have a 70% abstention rate and most of those who vote are low income people taken to the polls by community leaders who offer them cash payments to vote for a certain politician they have made alliances with.

Journalists in Cali affirm that people in this city also vote for the politicians their bosses at private companies or at public offices tell them to vote for in order to keep their jobs.

With analysts in Colombia estimating that 70% of the vote is tied up through these schemes, only 30% of the electorate is left to “opinion candidates” like Sanchez, who are attempting to seduce voters with their ideas.

These candidates are targeting a small portion of voters that don't sell their vote.  They have to convince new groups of people to come to the polls.

Sanchez acknowledges that getting new voters is tough for her as she has limited funds to travel around her state and to stage public meetings.  And her campaign manager says there is simply no money to buy ad space on radio and TV.

However, Sanchez is hoping the local LGBT community will rally behind her congressional bid and she is asking people to vote with dignity.

"Don´t exchange your vote for a soft drink, a meal or a tamale." she says, "Let´s change Colombia and let´s make good choices."