![\"Oscar](\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.towleroad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Oscar-Ugarteche.jpg?resize=480%2C332\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSeeing a rise in the visibility of LGBT and women\u2019s rights movements<\/a> in their country, Peruvian conservatives responded with a \u201cMarch for Heterosexual Pride.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n To counter a ministry of education curriculum promoting sex education and gender equality<\/a>, some people launched a NIMBY-ish movement, Con Mis Hijos No Te Metas<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cDon\u2019t Mess With My Children\u201d), to fight against \u201cgender ideology\u201d and teachings that they think promotes homosexuality.<\/p>\n This staunchly conservative, Catholic nation is in the middle of a fight about its moral core.<\/p>\n For the decade and change I lived in Peru \u2014 from my birth through primary school \u2014 homosexuality was presented to me as a sin. A shameful, mockable perversion I should hope to never catch.<\/p>\n And being female<\/a>? That came with a full package of body shaming and wolf whistles, the wandering hands of old men<\/a> a constant danger, young as I was.<\/p>\n Still, I was lucky. I\u2019m fairly straight, and the worst harassment I ever endured was a Peeping Tom. Besides, I left. And that might be why I\u2019m surprised by the progressive gender initiatives underway.<\/p>\n When the March for Heterosexual Pride event appeared on Facebook \u2014 the original has been deleted due to all the trolling, leaving only this smaller event made for people to leave more \u201ctrolly\u201d remarks<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 Congressman Alberto de Belaunde commented<\/a>: \u201cHello. I\u2019m confused by the event date. I thought every day was heterosexual pride day.\u201d<\/p>\n De Belaunde is a proponent of civil unions for same-sex<\/a> couples<\/a> in Peru. This late 2016 proposal<\/a> would grant same-sex<\/a> couples<\/a> \u201crights and responsibilities within the code of law,\u201d but not allow for marriage nor adoption.<\/p>\n Recently, a court ruled to recognize the marriage of activist Oscar Ugarteche<\/a>, who married his partner in Mexico and sued for it to be considered valid in his native Peru. Religious and conservative leaders were shaken by the ruling, but the court\u2019s reasoning was\u00a0based in civil law. The court also cited social changes throughout the world expanding access to same-sex<\/a> unions.<\/p>\n No te pierdas la entrevista a \u00d3scar Ugarteche sobre el fallo que exige a Reniec reconocer su matrimonio con el mexicano Fidel Aroche pic.twitter.com\/q0kzXJA18B<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Diario Per\u00fa21 (@Peru21pe) January 12, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n But same-sex<\/a> marriage is still not legal in Peru. So far, only Ugarteche\u2019s marriage will be recognized.<\/p>\n That ruling, along with abortion-rights protests<\/a> and the ministry of education\u2019s new curriculum \u2014 which the government\u00a0says advances gender equality<\/a>, teaching children about reproductive rights and sexual identity \u2014 would have been unthinkable when I was growing up in Peru.<\/p>\n The opposition to these things \u2014 that seems like a more familiar Peru to me.<\/p>\n But as fellow ex-pat Gabriela Wiener wrote in The New York Times last year<\/a>, something has changed. Wiener wrote specifically about women<\/a>, who last year gathered by the thousands in Lima\u00a0and other major cities to denounce their domestic abusers, their rapists.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is historic, it is painful,\u201d she wrote, \u201cbut it also fills you with hope to see how thousands of Peruvian women<\/a> lost their fear and decided to unite.\u201d<\/p>\n That loss of fear may not be the same force driving efforts toward civil unions or gender equality in classrooms. But that all this has happened in the last year signals a shift in the political and social climate of the country.<\/p>\n The machismo that drives so much of our social norms is meeting its match.<\/p>\n This article first appeared on PRI The World<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Staunchly Catholic Peru Sees a Surge in Gender Activism and Progressive Policies<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n