[Pantyholic]

TRANSSEXUAL PROSTITUTE MURDERED IN CHILE CAPITAL

(Jan. 3, 2008) A transvestite sex worker in Santiago’s Puente Alto district died last week after being attacked and stabbed, possibly by group of neo-Nazis. The victim, who died Dec. 28 of a stab wound, was identified as Gabriela Alejandra Albornoz.

The killing prompted a stern response from the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Freedom (MOVILH), Chile’s leading advocacy group for sexual minorities, which called on police to locate and prosecute the individual or group responsible for the murder.

“It’s time the authorities make some kind of statement against these types of brutal attacks and implement concrete measures to combat groups like the neo-Nazis, which represent a clear danger to everyone, especially vulnerable groups such as the transsexual population,” MOVILH stated in a press release.

Albornoz is by no means the first transsexual prostitute to be killed in Chile. In fact, three such murders took place in 2007, said the advocacy group.

“It’s sad that 2007 came to an end with three transsexual murders,” MOVILH President Rolando Jiménez told the Santiago Times. “It demonstrates just how vulnerable this sector of the sexual minority population is. We’re working on medium and long-term policies, but as long as there’s no change in the big picture, as long as transgender people have no other alternative to survive other than the sex trade, these cases of extreme violence will continue to occur.”

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