Maria Sumire

Peruvian feminist leader who pioneered LGBTQ+ rights and gender equality legislation in Latin America

Maria Sumire (born 1978) is a Peruvian activist and lawyer who co-founded the Movimiento por la Igualdad in 2003 to advance LGBTQ+ rights. Her legal advocacy led to Peru's first anti-discrimination law protecting sexual orientation in 2005. She spearheaded the Right to Family campaign that secured same-sex civil unions in 2017. Her work influenced Latin America's first transgender rights law in 2018 allowing legal gender recognition without medical procedures. She created the Safe Schools initiative training 10,000 educators on LGBTQ+ inclusion, reducing school violence by 40% in participating regions. Her legal team won landmark cases including the 2019 Supreme Court ruling permitting same-sex marriage in Lima. She established the Rainbow Foundation providing legal aid to 5,000+ LGBTQ+ individuals annually. Her 2020 book Building Bridges Not Walls became a regional bestseller and UNDP reference material. She advised the OAS on drafting the Inter-American Convention Against Discrimination, influencing policies in 15 countries. Her 2021 'Gender Justice Index' became a benchmark for evaluating LGBTQ+ rights in Latin America. She received the International Women of Courage Award from the US State Department in 2022 and the OSCE's Human Rights Defender Prize in 2023. Her work is documented in the documentary Voices of Visibility (2020) and she serves on the board of the ILGA World.