A present for Yulimar Rojas

 

A present for Yulimar

Written by Quiteria Franco

 

Yulimar Rojas is giving the country and all of us Venezuelan people lots of reasons to be proud and happy. She is the first Venezuelan woman to ever win a Gold Medal in the Olympic Games. She has broken a World record. That is Huge! I am very proud of her.

 

My question is what are we doing to give her something back?

 

She won Silver Medal for Triple Jump during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Afterwards, when she first showed a picture of her and her girlfriend about two years ago she stood up and overcame all the criticism about her sexual orientation. That’s what we gave her back then.

 

What are we going to give her now?

 

Even in the present, Is she free to have a girlfriend, is she able to be with her girlfriend?  Is she being forced to hide or not talk about her love life just like anyone else due to her sexual orientation?

 

Additionally, I wonder why she is not living in Venezuela. Is it because the country does not provide her with the proper conditions to do so. Is she getting a good salary? Is it a good salary? Is it enough for her to live without having to worry about not being able to make ends meet.

 

Is Venezuela creating the conditions for her to be happy? I wish her lots of happiness, but I also think that sometime in the future she is going to want to marry a woman. Her being a lesbian woman means that she and her wife might also want to have kids. Is Venezuela creating the conditions for that to happen? Is she going to be able to have protection for her same sex family?

 

Right now for example she is not be able to get married in Venezuela because same sex marriage is not possible. If she had kids she would not be able to register them with the names of both mothers. She would not be able to buy a house because it is not possible to get a bank loan with her wife.

 

If they decided to have kids, is Venezuela creating the conditions for her children not to be discriminated against at school for having two mothers.

 

I am not asking her to become an activist and be vocal about the situation of lesbian women in Venezuela. I only ask her to think about her as person, as a woman and her life in the future as a Venezuelan lesbian woman who has no rights in her own country. A country full of people that celebrate her accomplishments but who do not guarantee her human rights.

 

For the time being, I can only thank her for all the happiness she has given us and I promise to keep on working so we can guarantee her that her human rights in Venezuela will be a reality for her and every lesbian woman.