Chilean Government Faces Scrutiny for Backing “Trans” Children’s Book Linked to LGBTQ Group Whose Leader Defended a Convicted Child Rapist

By Anna Slatz
Rolando Jiménez

The Chilean government is facing growing scrutiny after sponsoring and approving the distribution of a new LGBTQIA+ children’s book in public schools, despite longstanding pedophile-related controversies surrounding the organization behind it. The book, Ariel es una niña (Ariel Is a Girl), produced by the Movimiento de Integración y Liberación Homosexual (MOVILH), is being promoted as the country’s first story aimed at introducing “trans childhoods” to young readers.

The story follows a young male character named Ariel as he introduces his new “female” identity to his friends and family. According to Radio Nuevo Mundo, the book is intended to “open pathways of understanding and accompaniment of trans childhoods.”

The book is slated for an initial release of 5,000 copies, which will be distributed across kindergartens and libraries throughout Chile. It carries official sponsorships from the Sub-secretariat of Childhood, the Defensoría de la Niñez, the Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education program of the University of Chile, the Faculty of Psychology of the Universidad Diego Portales (and its Project T on trans childhoods), and the Gender & Diversity Unit of the Liceo Experimental Manuel de Salas.

However, Chilean child-safeguarding advocates are raising concerns not only about the book’s content but also about the organization behind it. MOVILH has been embroiled in years of controversy, particularly regarding allegations of its leadership’s support for and sympathies toward pedophiles.

MOVILH is one of Chile’s leading LGBT activist organizations and has received more than 279 million pesos in government funding since 2001. The group has also received support from the European Union as well as countries such as Norway, the Netherlands, and Spain.

According to its website, MOVILH was founded in June 1991, and the following year was admitted into the International Lesbian, Gay, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), which has worked with the United Nations (UN) to advocate for changes to laws and policies since 1993.

The group’s official website vaguely states that during the 1990s, “MOVILH suffered from external divisions,” but it does not mention that these “external divisions” stemmed from founding member Rolando Jiménez expressing support for activist organizations that defended pedophilic relationships between adults and children.

In September 1994, ILGA’s consultative status within the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNECOSOC) was revoked due to its ties to several multinational pro-pedophile lobby groups, including the U.S.-based North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), the Dutch group Vereniging MARTIJN, and the Berlin-based Bundesverband Homosexualität (BVH), which condoned the sexual abuse of minors. Seeking to restore credibility within the UN, ILGA member groups voted—with an 88% majority—to expel the pedophile activist networks.

Under Jiménez’s leadership, however, MOVILH was among the few organizations that opposed the proposal and voted against removing the pedophile groups from ILGA. Jiménez was ultimately expelled from MOVILH in 1994 after voting in favor of maintaining ILGA’s affiliation with the pro-pedophile political groups, but he subsequently took control of the organization’s intellectual property and continued on with his leadership.

MOVILH also offered support to a trans activist who was exposed as a perpetrator of child rape.

María López Barrera, formerly known as Rodrigo Alejandro López Barrera, raped a 14-year-old boy and infected him with HIV before hiding his criminal past by identifying as transgender and changing his name. López Barrera has been active in Chile’s LGBT scene for decades, and began campaigning for “transvestite rights” under his birth name in the early 2000s after he was made the president of the Aconcagua chapter of TravesChile.

Jimènez promoted López Barrera repeatedly over the years, including offering tributes to him on X calling him a “great woman and trans activist.”

Even after the revelations became widespread and news of López Barrera’s pedophilic past made headlines in Chile, Jiménez continued to defend him, accusing his critics of being “far-right” and “rabid.” He also referred to the convicted child rapist as a “valuable trans leader.”

Ariel es una niña has already been denounced by some Chilean politicians concerned about its impact and source.

Speaking to Araucanía Diario, Senator-elect Vanessa Kaiser said: “Parents don’t want their children to be indoctrinated by gender ideology. Parents want the children to be left alone. We don’t want LGBT activists in kindergartens.”

The president of the Christian Social Party, Congresswoman Sara Concha, sent a letter to the Comptroller General of the Republic denouncing the government’s decision to offer sponsorship to the book.

Concha called it “unacceptable,” noting that the Chilean state was struggling financially and yet money was still being allocated to “ideology promotion.”

Diego Schalper, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, released a video statement on X addressing the book and calling for an “end to the ideological indoctrination of minors and classrooms.”

Several other politicians offered their condemnation of the book, and, on Friday, MOVILH formally responded and called the criticism “transphobic hate speech.” The organization also claimed that the political condemnation had prompted a wave of “hate mail” to be directed to their offices.

“The so-called concept of ‘gender ideology’ is a construct invented by homophobic and transphobic sectors to attack the rights of LGBTIQ+ people through misinformation, alarmism and speeches that harm children, adolescents and their families,” MOVILH wrote.

Transgender politician Emilia Schneider similarly slammed critics of the book, taking to X to rally support around MOVILH.

“Once again, the right-wing wants to censor books before their release, without having read them, and this time just for highlighting that TRANS YOUTH EXIST,” Schneider wrote. “They already did it with “Nicolás Has Two Dads” in 2014, and today the new adoption law recognises the diverse families that have always existed. Now they’re criticizing ‘Ariel Is a Girl,’ invoking the NON-BINDING report of the Investigative Commission in which they spread lies about hormone therapies, even though the story doesn’t even address that topic. It’s unbelievable, this insistence on disinformation to cover up discrimination and hatred: have a bit of pity for those families who support their daughters/sons through their transition process, and who are tired of dealing with this constant harassment from the political use they want to make of sensitive realities that we should protect as a society instead of stigmatizing. My greetings to MOVILH for this great initiative.”

Despite activists defending the book, pushback against its distribution continues to mount.

Agrupación Kairós, a Chilean organization for the critical parents of children who were transitioned, noted that the book may encourage kids to initiate medical procedures with permanent consequences.

“No, Ariel isn’t a girl. Ariel is a boy who likes things ‘for girls’ and there’s nothing wrong with that,” the group wrote on X. “A direct distribution of 5,000 copies [of the book] will be made in nurseries and schools across Chile, promoting social transition at pre-school level (ages 3–6), which is particularly concerning, as children affirmed in their felt gender identity at such an early age have few opportunities to explore their identity naturally, at their own pace and respecting their developmental stages, pigeonholing them into a social and identity role prematurely. Many of these children will later undergo hormone treatments, which in Chile begin at age 9, followed by surgeries that are also performed on those under 18.”

MOVILH has attempted to defend the book on social media, but has been met with overwhelming backlash from concerned parents.

Special thanks to Nicolás Raveau of Detrans Chile, an organization dedicated to supporting detransitioners, for assisting with the publication of this article.

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Anna Slatz
Anna Slatz
Anna is the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief at Reduxx, with a journalistic focus on covering crime, child predators, and women's rights. She lives in Türkiye, enjoys Opera, and memes in her spare time.
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