Eighteen male candidates from a Mexican political party have registered as transgender women to avoid being left out of the 2021 election cycle because of a constitutional gender quota.
An amendment to article 41 of the Federal Constitution of Mexico passed in 2014 establishes the principle of “gender parity” and requires political parties throughout Mexico be made up of 50% women and 50% men.
Prior to the June 6 gubernatorial and local elections the “Force for Mexico” party had 18 of its members in Tlaxcala state file for candidacy as trans women, according to The Catholic News Agency.
Fuerza Por México presentó 18 hombres que se reconocieron como mujeres trans, esto para cumplir con el requisito de paridad; el partido no quiso revelar los nombres de los candidatos. #EnPunto con @DeniseMaerker pic.twitter.com/GHq3xMj2Bp
— NMás (@nmas) May 25, 2021
President of “Force for Mexico” Luis Vargas defended the party’s actions when accused of nominating fake trans candidates to let men take up the quota dedicated for women.
“The trans issue is three-pronged: transgender, transsexual, and transvestite. And the issue for the (trans) community is very broad. I can’t get into people’s privacy and tell them ‘you yes and you no’,” Vargas said, when asked for a comment Wednesday by a Televisa news program.
In 2018 Mexican officials from Ouxaca state disqualified 15 male candidates 15 men who tried to run for local office masquerading as transgenders, The Daily Caller reported.
“Gender ideology, being a matter of subjective confusion and chaos, also reaches a crisis point when monetary, political or other interests can demonstrate its lies and confusion,” Marcial Padilla, director of ConParticipación, told The Catholic News Agency.
“This will be one of many cases that we are going to see in Mexico and in other countries,” Padilla said.