Esteban Paulón

Esteban Paulón (born 17 June 1978) is an Argentine LGBT rights activist and politician currently serving as a National Deputy elected in Santa Fe Province. From 2010 to 2015 he was president of the FALGBT, Argentina's largest LGBT rights organization.

Esteban Paulón
National Deputy
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 December 2023
Constituency	Santa Fe
Personal details
Born	(1978-06-17) 17 June 1978 (age 46)
Political party	Socialist Party (since 2002) Popular Socialist Party (1992–2002)
Other political affiliations	Hacemos por Nuestro País (since 2023)
Alma mater	Universidad del Salvador

Early life and career

Paulón was born on 17 June 1978. He completed a licenciatura degree on tourism at the Universidad del Salvador (USAL).

His activism in favour of LGBT rights in Argentina led to him leading the Federación Argentina de Lesbianas, Gays, Bisexuales y Trans (English: "Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans"; FALGBT+), serving as its president from 2010 to 2015, vice president from 2015 to 2019, and secretary general from 2007 to 2019.^[1] He had an active participation in drafting and promoting the Equal Marriage Law (2009), which legalised same-sex marriage in Argentina and the Gender Identity Law (2012), which granted the travesti and trans population free access to legal gender changes, hormone replacement therapy and gender-affirming surgery.^[2]

In 2015, he compiled the "Pride (Orgullo en el trabajo)" report for the International Labour Organization and the LGBT Citizenship Plan “De la Igualdad legal a la igualdad real” (English: "From legal equality to real equality"), in collaboration with the FALGBT and the United Nations inter-agency system in Argentina.

From 2015 to 2019, he was Undersecretary of Sexual Diversity Policies of Santa Fe Province under Governor Miguel Lifschitz.^[3] He also chaired the executive committee of Red Gay Latino and served as an ad honorem advisor to the Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity of Argentina from 2019 to 2023.^[4]

National Deputy

At the 2023 general election, Paulón was the first candidate in the Hacemos por Nuestro País list to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies in Santa Fe (under the name "La Fuerza de Santa Fe");^[5] the list received 9.19% of the vote, enough for Paulón to make it past the D'Hondt cut and be elected.^[6]

Electoral history

Electoral history of Esteban Paulón

Election	Office	List		#	District	Votes			Result	Ref.
						Total	%	P.
2023	National Deputy		La Fuerza de Santa Fe	1	Santa Fe Province	184,680	9.19%	4th[a]	Elected	[6]

1. Presented on an electoral list. The data shown represents the share of the vote the entire party/alliance received in that constituency.