Dominican Republic Research Paper

964 Words2 Pages

Hector Martinez, Maria Marte Karina
History of the Dominican Republic
LGBT Community in the D.R Homosexuality In today’s society, gender identity and sexuality are a major point of discussion. The rights of those who either identify as another gender and transition or those who like the same sex are put in the limelight of social issues to discuss. People are starting to know more about how people who face these issues deal with it from other countries, especially in the Dominican Republic. In the Dominican Republic, LGBT youth have been facing discrimination and inhuman treatment because they do not fit in the normal social environment of what’s acceptable. In living in the developing world, discrimination, humiliation and violence …show more content…

LGBT communities are saying that as soon as they assume their homosexuality they start to experience mistreatment by authority and society. Alianza Gth reports that transgender individuals “face humiliation and violation of their human rights to privacy because when voting for election they have to go to the lines of male votes since voting locations are sometimes separated by gender. The youth are also being discriminated in school. They are sometimes expelled as soon as they assume their sexuality. They are also bully in school. Between May 2006 and 2012, 17 transsexuals have been killed. Authority did not even open an investigation. The health of Transgender in the Dominican Republic is also an issue. There is an organization in Santo Domingo called Coined. It offers clinic every two weeks. Health promoters go to the sites where the woman works to them that Coins would be there the next day. Transgender has higher risked of contracting HIV, female transgender are 50 percent higher at risk to be HIV positive. Transgender sex workers apart from female sex worker are more likely to be HIV positive. One of the Reason for this because the government puts restriction on condoms for transgender, sex workers, and men having sex with …show more content…

Lesbianism in DR, like here in the US is viewed by many as less threatening, and by many men as a sexual fantasy they would like to play out. Driving the homophobic feelings in the DR is the conservative background of the Dominican society and the “machismo” of the male population. Structuring the conservative mindset of the Dominican culture is the strong presence of the Catholic Church. For many years a key figure in politics, society, and culture, the church has played a hand in creating the conservative atmosphere that is subtly opposed to homosexuality in any form. The Cardinal of Santo Domingo, Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, affirmed in comments that the church does not discriminate against homosexual but that they do not belong in the seminaries. He also stated that “the church must have a healthy, intelligent, and manly clergy that is neither effeminate nor womanly but that homosexuality is a disorder that can be corrected and managed.”This mindset that many Dominicans are raised with, and ultimately believe in, express the subtle attitudes of Dominicans towards homosexuality. According to machismo attitudes, a man is strong, courageous and brave. He is always in control, never bowing to anyone, while in turn the female is an inferior, non-controlling being. Therefore on the DR, a male who has sex with another man, supposedly maintains his masculinity if he is the one penetrating and not being

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