Chilean Cops Say Being Gay Cost Them Their Jobs

Two Chilean policemen say that they were forced to resign when they were discovered to be in a gay relationship.

The Santiago Times reported today that Victor Rivas and Armando Salgado claimed they were threatened by their superiors, who said they would out the two publicly unless they resigned from the police.

Police officials deny the claim, saying that the Rivas and Salgado quit of their own volition.

A Chilean gay equality group, the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Freedom (the initials of which are MOVILH in Spanish), says that the case points up "brutal discrimination" against gays.

"Here you have two Carabineros [uniformed police] who were forced to quit their jobs just because they're gay," said Rolando MOVILH President It's brutal discrimination," said Rolando Jim?nez, president of the organization.

Continued Jim?nez, "We have proven evidence of similar cases in the past, and we know that the Carabineros' internal investigative branch has looked into presumed homosexuality among officers, treating such sexual orientation as a crime."

Rivas and Salgado, together with MOVILH, have sought audiences with members of Chile's government, including the undersecretary of the police, Javiera Blanco Su?rez, with whom the men, plus Jim?nez, met on Wednesday, Oct. 10.

Su?rez said that he would see to it that President Michelle Bachelet, as well as top police officials, heard about the men's claims.

The former officers say that they wish to reinstated, and also want assurances that they will not face discrimination in the future.

"We want to stress the tremendous bravery it took for these to police officers to bring this situation to light, to publicly complain and to consider legal actions should the negotiations we began today with the undersecretary and top Carabineros officials fail," Jim?nez said in an article published by the Santiago Times.

MOVILH took on the police earlier this year in the case of a gay novelist who said that the police harangued and taunted he and his boyfriend.

The group also conferred with police higher-ups with regard to a December, 2006, incident of alleged police brutality in which the Carabineros responded to a complaint from a nightclub about a drunk patron by beating the man and a friend.

The attack, which took place on the street, was accompanied by verbal slurs as well, with one Carabinero allegedly saying, "You are the scum of society," and, "You two weren't born, your mothers shit you out."

Jim?nez said that the higher-level police officials have been helpful in these cases, and that discrimination emanates not from the top brass but from the lower ranks.

Said Jim?nez, "[The] Undersecretary has shown real willingness to work with us," adding, "What we need is for the Carabineros as an institution to send out a strong signal that it cannot tolerate discrimination against homosexuals."

Continued Jim?nez, "I think that the top authorities believe in that. It's basically the middle and lower ranks--the street police--that have a cultural attitude that's much more homophobic."