Lgbtq in puerto rico
Serving openly in military in Puerto Rico is lesbians, gays, bisexuals permitted, trans people banned.
On February 10th, 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth filed in court a memo relating to President Trumpâs executive direct from the previous month.
From then until March 18th, 2025, The U.S. military prohibited gender non-conforming individuals from enlisting and ceased providing or supporting gender transition procedures for service members.
CW: discrimination and violence toward LGBTQIA+ communities, transphobia, murders of trans women in Puerto Rico
Movements advocating for equity and respect for LGBTQIA+ people in Puerto Rico have been active for decades. While some progress has been made, LGBTQIA+ communities are far from having social and structural safety. The establishment of online and in-person safe spaces has been one method to make that sense of security, however temporary, from discrimination, physical violence, and microaggressions that target LGBTQIA+ people. But as some of these safe spaces hold opened and closed over the years, it’s still unclear how much lgbtq+ and trans communities can depend on them for longer-term stability.
For one, LGBTQIA+ communities are not monolithic—their needs and priorities can differ considerably based on personal experiences, age, socioeconomic status, work status, gender identity, sexuality, and whether they can be out safely. Additionally, there are considerable cultural differences between the San Juan metro area and the repose of the island.
“In the southern area, the core area, and the western area, the thoughts, traditions, and perspectives maintained are
Before Bad Bunny: Eight trailblazing queer icons from Puerto Rico
Since the dawn of the 2020s, Puerto Rico’s Bad Bunny has captured the attention of the global queer planet by donning flamboyant in a harmony video, honoring a murdered trans gal on “The Tonight Show,” locking lips with his male backup dancer at MTV's Video Harmony Awards and, most recently,kissing Gael García Bernal in the new movie “Cassandro.”
No less than Ricky Martin has called Bad Bunny, Puerto Rico’s latest hijofavorito, “an icon for the Latin lgbtq+ community.” But the trap musician — who has described his views on sexuality as fluid but has previously self-identified as heterosexual — is just the latest in a long line of queer icons to hail from Puerto Rico, a pantheon including activists, an athlete, an astrologer, the highest-seated judge in the land — and, of course, Martin himself.
Ricky Martin
Before Awful Bunny even took his first breath, Ricky Martin was well on his way to becoming Puerto Rico’s biggest musical export of all time. Born Enrique Martín Morales in 1971 in San Juan, Martin rose to fame as a member of the rotating-member boy band Menudo from 1984 to 1989. As Martin’s fame as a solo artis
LGBTQ Puerto Rican women are making history in 2023
Representation matters even more to three of the most historically marginalized and underrepresented groups in the last century in the U.S.: Women, Latinos and the LGBTQ community.
Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. Puerto Ricans since then have struggled to get worthy representation in the states and internationally. But if being a Puerto Rican is already tricky because of the historical unfairness of the “relationship” between the island and the U.S., creature a member of the LGBTQ community is even more challenging.
Puerto Ricans are treated as second-class citizens in the U.S. by receiving less federal aid and benefits than the 50 states and existence underrepresented in each political, social, cultural, economic and governmental position within the mainland. Puerto Ricans’ federal and constitutional rights are not guaranteed like common Americans. Puerto Ricans, prefer women and Black people, have mainly and throughout U.S. history received their federal and constitutional rights one by one through the U.S. Supreme Court. And why is it so important to provide all this backgroun
Puerto Rico issues LGBTQ emergency declaration amid violence
Human rights defenders in Puerto Rico have welcomed a recent declaration of a declare of emergency over gender violence on the island as a step in the right direction, but cautioned that real convert can only come after a meaningful shift on the societal level.
Gender activists have for years been calling for the designation, but the year 2020 brought on an increased sense of urgency: the US territory had 60 femicides – a 62 percent increase over the year before, according to the Observatory for Gender Equity, a local watchdog.
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end of listOn January 24, the island’s governor Pedro Pierluisi issued an executive request declaring a state of emergency for 18 months, in a move that directs resources to government agencies to combat hostility directed at women and girls and members of the LGBTQ community.
The instruction also includes the appointment of a new government representativ