LGBTQ in Guayaquil encompasses the various expressions of sexuality and gender of the LGBTQ people who have lived in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil throughout its history. According to the 2022 Ecuadorian Population and Housing Census, Guayaquil is the city with the highest number of people in the country who openly identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or intersex (LGBTI), and events like Guayaquil Pride annually attract tens of thousands of people. The city has numerous nightlife establishments catering to an LGBTQ audience, although deficiencies are noted in the availability of other tourist and cultural options focused on sexual diversity.
Social acceptance of LGBTQ people has increased considerably in recent decades, to the point where today there are legal protections, both nationally and locally, that protect sexually diverse people. However, acts of discrimination still occur and, according to a 2022 survey by the consultancy firm Ipsos, LGBTI people are less accepted in Guayaquil compared to other Ecuadorian cities like Quito.
Before the 1970s, there was little visibility of homosexuality in the city, although figures of diverse sexuality from Guayaquil did emerge, such as the poet David Ledesma Vázquez. The return to democracy coincided with an increase in the visibility of LGBTQ people, although this brought with it an intensification of persecution of these groups by local and national authorities. These policies became particularly palpable during the government of President León Febres-Cordero Ribadeneyra (1984–1988), during which arrests and violence against homosexual, transgender, or any man displaying characteristics considered "effeminate" became widespread.
The decriminalization of homosexuality in Ecuador, approved in 1997, reduced discrimination against this group in the city; however, segregation persisted during the early years of the 21st century, particularly by the municipal authorities themselves, who used to prohibit LGBTQ people from entering public spaces, such as Malecón 2000, under the purported argument of "protecting morality and good customs". During this time, LGBTQ activists repeatedly tried to obtain permits to hold a pride march in the city, but the authorities refused. However, in 2008, the first Guayaquil Pride March was finally held, and it has since become a massive event.
The 2010s marked a shift in the attitude of municipal authorities towards sexual diversity, who began to lend their support to LGBTQ events and position Guayaquil as a city of respect. Since then, important rights gains have been achieved for sexually diverse populations in the city, such as the approval in 2017 of an ordinance to prohibit all types of discrimination based on gender reasons or the celebration, starting in 2019, of the first same-sex marriages.
In addition to the pride march, Guayaquil is currently the scene of various annual events focused on sexually diverse populations, such as the El Lugar Sin Límites International LGBT Film Festival and the National Trans March. LGBTQ organizations such as Asociación Silueta X, Alianza Igualitaria, Mujer & Mujer, and Casa de las Muñecas have their main headquarters in the city, which also hosts permanent performances by local drag artists.
History Thanks to records kept in the National Archive of Ecuador, a case of sodomy in Guayaquil is known that was tried by the Royal Audiencia of Quito before Ecuador achieved its independence from Spain. The event occurred in 1779 and was brought to a judge of the audience by prosecutor Juan José de Villalengua, who accused a man named Pascual Cárdenas of the "nefarious sin". Cárdenas, who was originally from Cuzco, had previously been expelled from Lima after receiving accusations of having "bad conduct" and "perverse inclinations". According to the accusation, the "nefarious sin" would have also involved Francisco de Ugarte, a former Governor of Guayaquil.
Well into the 20th century, the years before the return to democracy (1978) were characterized by the low visibility of LGBTQ people in the city. However, some Guayaquil natives whose homosexuality was known have survived to the present day. Among them was the poet David Ledesma Vásquez (1934–1961), who, due to his sexual orientation, was placed by his father in a clinic in Lima where he underwent conversion therapy. Ledesma ended up committing suicide at the age of 27. Also homosexual within Ledesma's poetic group was the writer Carlos Benavides Vega, as well as the journalist and playwright José Guerra Castillo, with whom Ledesma collaborated on some theatrical productions. Other homosexual figures from Guayaquil in the 1950s were the politicians Jorge Maldonado Renella and Enrique Arbuiza.
During the 1960s, the military authorities began a campaign of social "moralization" which targeted, among others, cross-dressing girls and gay men with features considered feminine. Those detained were then accused of some false crime and imprisoned in the Penitenciaría del Litoral or the Quinto Guayas Infantry Battalion, where they were sometimes assaulted or raped by other inmates.
Return to democracy
The era of the return to democracy (1978) was accompanied by an increase in the visibility of LGBTQ people in the country, caused, among other reasons, by the impact of international events like the Stonewall riots and migrations to large cities as a consequence of the oil boom. Because of this, LGBTQ people from different provinces began to migrate to Quito and Guayaquil. At this time, the first clandestine LGBTQ bars appeared in the city. Transgender women engaged in sex work frequented Calle 18, as well as Primero de Mayo. Another area frequented by the Guayaquil LGBTQ population was Avenida Nueve de Octubre.
The increase in LGBTQ visibility during these years increased persecution and arrests by law enforcement. One of the most publicized cases of abuse occurred after the appointment in 1979 of Abdalá Bucaram as Intendant of Police for Guayas. After being appointed, Bucaram published a manifesto known as "The sixteen commandments of Abdalá" in which he denounced all the people he considered morally reprehensible, as a form of public shaming against them. Shortly after, he carried out a police raid in Guayaquil detaining sex workers, gay men, and transgender women. He then summoned citizens to the streets and forced the detainees to walk 25 blocks, from the Cuartel Modelo to the Municipal Palace, a route during which bystanders insulted them and threw objects at them. In the following years, Bucaram continued to commit abuses and, in January 1980, forbade any man from having long hair, initiating operations in Guayaquil where police would cut the hair of anyone found violating the order.
This negative view of sexual diversity was reproduced by the local press. An example of this occurred in an article that appeared in the late 1970s in the magazine Caskabel Internacional, which offered a scandalous view of lesbianism and described it as a threat proliferating in Guayaquil. The text, titled "Lesbianism: Danger looming over Guayaquil", presented four testimonies of supposed lesbian women pointing to "hatred of men" and sexual dissatisfaction as possible causes of their "deviances".
Repression against LGBTQ people intensified during the government of conservative President León Febres-Cordero Ribadeneyra (1984–1988). On May 23, 1985, Febres-Cordero created the so-called Flying Squads, a group of elite police forces that committed systematic human rights violations and acts of torture against people they considered undesirable, including sex workers, people from LGBTQ populations, or any man with characteristics they deemed "effeminate". Activist Gonzalo Abarca recounted that transgender women in particular were beaten, raped, and tortured. As part of a report presented by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Mabell García, a trans activist and torture survivor, recalled that they were often taken to the Cuartel Modelo and forced to "commit aberrant acts" for wearing female clothing. Another testimony was related by Guayaquil activist Fernando Orozco, who in 1986 was detained by police for his sexual orientation, after which he was blindfolded, beaten, and left in a cell with dangerous prisoners, where he was sexually abused.
1990s In late 1989, the body of Wendy Calle was found in Guayaquil, a transgender woman whose death sparked interest in the country when it was revealed that she had undergone gender reassignment surgery. Furthermore, Calle's murder marked the beginning of a series of transphobic attacks during the early 1990s centered on Calle Primero de Mayo that went unpunished. During the attacks, transgender women were kidnapped, beaten, and in some cases, murdered. They were then abandoned on the Vía Perimetral. Because homosexuality was still a crime in the country, survivors did not report the events for fear of being arrested.
On August 15, 1995, the Fundación Amigos por la Vida (Famivida) was officially registered. It was the first LGBTQ organization in the history of Guayaquil, although initially it was registered as an organization for HIV/AIDS prevention, without mentioning the defense of LGBTQ rights, also because of the law criminalizing homosexuality in Ecuador.
After the Abanicos bar raid, a police incursion in June 1997 at an LGBTQ bar in Cuenca where several detainees suffered abuse and rape, activists from Famivida joined the LGBTQ groups Fedaeps, Coccinelle, and Tolerancia to form a unified front with the goal of achieving decriminalization of homosexuality in Ecuador. After agreeing to file a constitutionality challenge against the article criminalizing homosexuality, they began a campaign to collect signatures of support, a fundamental requirement to file the lawsuit. As a result of the campaign, on September 17, the first public demonstration of LGBTQ people in the history of Guayaquil took place in front of the Court of Justice. Among the important figures in the signature collection in the city were chef Gino Molinari, as well as activist Ángelo Anastacio, in whose house, located in the Martha de Roldós citadel, meetings between activists were held. On November 25, 1997, the Constitutional Tribunal annulled the first clause of Article 516 of the Penal Code, thereby decriminalizing homosexuality in Ecuador.
2000s Although the last years of the 20th century brought a series of legal victories for Ecuadorian LGBTQ populations, including the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1997 and the inclusion of sexual orientation as a protected category against discrimination in the 1998 Constitution, LGBTQ people in Guayaquil continued to suffer acts of discrimination by authorities during the early years of the 21st century.
A case documented in a report by Amnesty International occurred on June 28, 2000, when about 300 people, organized by the foundation Famivida, attempted to hold a pride march for the first time in the city, but were dispersed by a group of 60 police officers who threw tear gas at them. After being dispersed by the police, many of those present escaped to the LGBTQ bar Judah, but police arrived shortly after and carried out a raid along with cameramen from the television network Canal Uno, who filmed the detainees. In the following years, activists requested permission from the city's mayor, Jaime Nebot, to hold a pride march, but repeatedly the mayor refused, asserting that "society was not prepared" for that type of event.