Alejandra González Pino

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is González and the second or maternal family name is Pino.

Alejandra González Pino (10 March 1968 – 5 October 2022) was a Chilean politician.^[1] She was the first transgender person to be elected to a political office in Chile and one of the first in Latin America after Kátia Tapety in Brazil in 1992.^[2]

Alejandra González Pino
Member of the Municipal Council of Lampa
In office 6 December 2004 – 6 December 2016
Personal details
Born	(1968-03-10)10 March 1968 Batuco, Santiago, Chile
Died	5 October 2022(2022-10-05) (aged 54) Batuco, Santiago, Chile
Political party	PH Independent
Occupation	Politician

Biography

From a young age, González had felt as though she identified as a woman. In 1995, she joined a circus of drag queens in her neighborhood and owned her own hair salon. She gave hairdressing classes to those infected with HIV/AIDS at San José Hospital in Santiago. In 2002, she met with TECHO, for whom she served as a municipal and provincial representative.^[3]

Political career

In 2004 [es], González was elected to the municipal council of Lampa as an independent within the Juntos Podemos Más coalition. She received 6.8% of the vote and became the first transgender person to serve in a political office in Chile.^[4] She was re-elected in 2008 with 6.3% of the vote within the Concertación list and was re-elected again in 2012 with 9.5% of the vote. She lost her mandate in 2016, having only received 2.5% of the vote.

In 2012, González became Chile's first transgender deputy mayor when Graciela Ortúzar left her office to campaign elsewhere.^[5] In 2014, she invoked the anti-discrimination law against Ortúzar,^[6] who was sentenced by the Supreme Court of Chile in 2017 to pay a fine, a ruling described as historic by González and LGBT rights groups.^[7][8]

Alejandra González Pino died of heart failure in Batuco on 5 October 2022, at the age of 54.^[9]