Mexican officials rejected the attempts of 17 men who tried to run for local office as women.
Officials from Oaxaca rejected the candidates after learning they were running to fulfill a gender requirement that mandates elections in the Oaxaca region have a certain number of female candidates.
“We reject this fraudulent usurpation of trans identity meant to avoid the obligation of the parties and the candidates to respect the constitutional mandate of gender equality,” the officials stated, according to NewNowNext.
Officials became aware of the men posing as women after a well-known group of transgender individuals belonging to the muxe community — a longstanding group made up of non-binary people — spoke out.
“The majority of them have publicly known marriages and children with women,” the muxe community wrote in a statement, NewNowNext reports. “Some of them are even running for re-election as mayors, and during their past terms they said nothing about being transgender.”
Mexican officials vowed to be more vigilant going forward to ensure that women have access to run for office and that those efforts will not be co-opted by men posing as a gender they are not. (RELATED: Here’s A List Of Every Transgender Elected To US Public Office)
Election Day in Mexico is July 1.
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