Activists warn of lgbtiq+ rights backsliding; civil registry blocks trans name changes.
2026 June 8
A La Nación investigation compiled the setbacks in LGBTIQ+ rights that activists and organizations say have accumulated in Costa Rica in recent years. Among the barriers that most directly affect trans people, the report highlights that the Civil Registry has been rejecting name-change applications from trans people since 2022, obstructing access to health care, employment, education and political participation.
The piece also lists the revocation of Executive Decree 38.999 against discrimination toward LGBTIQ+ people in public institutions, the dissolution of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Social Inclusion and the elimination of the Social Inclusion Commissioner post, the removal of school protocols addressing bullying against LGBTIQ+ students, setbacks in comprehensive sexual education, the omission of state commemorations of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, the removal of LGBTIQ+ flags from government buildings, the withdrawal of cultural-interest status from the Pride march, and Costa Rica’s withdrawal from an OAS regional LGBTIQ+ forum.
Former Social Inclusion Commissioner Ricardo Sossa described the pattern as “the total and complete disrespect for the human rights of vulnerable populations, including LGBT.” The incoming Laura Fernández administration did not answer the newspaper’s questions about whether a new inclusion commissioner would be appointed.