Rep. Robert Garcia, the first Peruvian American elected to Congress, won’t attend a June event with the country’s embassy after Peru classified transgender people as mentally ill.
The Peruvian government on May 10 published a decree that classifies transgender identities as a mental illness that is eligible for health insurance. An official with the Ministry of Health said it was intended to facilitate health coverage for people who are transgender and “people with gender identity disorders.”
Garcia, a Long Beach Democrat, said the move was “discriminatory, dangerous and shameful.”
“Instead of working on real problems – democratic backsliding, illegal mining and logging, and worker exploitation – this extreme measure moves Peru backward,” Garcia said in a statement. “I’ll be working directly with the State Department to push back on this direct attack on LGBTQ+ Peruvians.”
Garcia, who is gay, was elected in September as co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Peru, a bipartisan group that aims to strengthen the U.S. relationship with the Peruvian people about topics of common interest, bipartisan events, and the promotion of cultural ties.