Erick Iván Ortiz

Erick Iván Ortiz Godoy (born February 14, 1991) is a Salvadoran a LGBTQ+ activist and politician. He is a member of the Salvadoran LGBTI+ Federation, and is one of the country's most visible activists. In the 2021 elections, he ran for the Legislative Assembly in El Salvador, becoming the first openly gay man to aspire to a legislative position in the country.

Life and career Erick Iván Ortiz Godoy was born on February 14, 1991, in Santa Ana, El Salvador. He studied economics at Escuela Superior de Economía y Negocios (English: Higher School of Economics and Business), and later studied human rights at the Luis Amigó Catholic University in Medellín, Colombia. Additionally he trained in social leadership from George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States.

For the 2021 legislative and municipal elections, he ran for the Legislative Assembly under the Nuestro Tiempo party, becoming the first openly gay man to seek a legislative position in the country's history. During the election campaign, Ortiz was barred from promoting himself in traditional media outlets for attempting to reclaim the term "culero" as part of his campaign slogan and suffered discrimination from passersby because of his sexual orientation. He was ultimately not elected, but received more than ten thousand votes in the district he represented, the department of San Salvador.

In early 2022, he joined the Global Equality Caucus initiative, which had officially launched in Latin America that year. Ortiz continued to lead the Colectivo Normal, in addition to serving as the communications secretary for the Salvadoran LGBTI+ Federation. The perpetrators of the death threats were never identified.