LGTBIQ+ Community Celebrates Gay Pride in Panama

Demanding several social reforms, human rights organizations and activists marched on Saturday in Panama to hold the 2021 Gay Pride parade. 

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Carrying banners and chanting, activists marched from the "5 de Mayo" Square to the Cinta Costera viewpoint to fight for their rights and condemn stigma, discrimination, and violence. 

The activists pointed out that the Panamanian State has a historical debt with the LGBTIQ+ community while also warning over acts of discrimination against trans and non-binary men and women during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"We cannot continue to be invisible. Despite COVID-19, we will take to the streets because we cannot continue to remain silent," activist Ricardo Eloy stressed.

World Pride Panama's President Franklyn Robinson presented several demands to guarantee  LGBTIQ+ rights, such as an anti-discrimination law to combat hate speech. 

Besides vowing for public policies in the health care system to assist trans people and the education sector, Robinson called on the Supreme Court to eradicate existing discrimination articles in the country's family code.

"As civil society organizations, we believe it is convenient to eliminate all types of discrimination in the National Police and all those institutions that should guarantee the welfare and security of the population," Robinson said.