Purita Pelayo

Purita Valentina Pelayo (born March 24, 1957) is an Ecuadorian writer and activist for transgender rights. She played a leading role in the 1997 decriminalization of homosexuality in Ecuador. Pelayo was one of the founding members and the president of the Coccinelle Association, the first association of transgender, , and intersex Ecuadorians.

To recognize Pelayo's activism for the rights of LGBTQ people, the Municipality of Quito granted her the Patricio Brabomalo Award in 2021. In 2017, she wrote Los fantasmas se cabrearon, a book about police violence against Ecuadorian LGBTQ people and the beginning of Ecuadorian LGBTQ activism in the 20th century. Pelayo wrote the book under her pseudonym, Alberto Cabral.

Biography Purita Pelayo was born on March 24, 1957 in Esmeraldas. She completed secondary school at Colegio 5 de Agosto in Esmeraldas. As a young woman, she participated in community service with the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus. In the 1980s, she moved to Quito, intending to study law. After failing the law school entrance exam, Pelayo decided to study philosophy and political science at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. However, she dropped out after two and a half years. During this time, she began to present as a transgender and become close to other trans women in Quito's Mariscal District, many of whom were sex workers.

In response to the Bar Abanicos police raid, a violent police raid on a gay discotheque in Cuenca in June 1997, various Ecuadorian LGBTQ groups formed a front to demand the decriminalization of homosexuality. Pelayo took a prominent position in the campaign for gay rights, and members of Coccinelle began to gather every Wednesday in Quito's to demand their rights.

Coccinelle was dissolved in 2000 among conflicts over use of association funds. It was rebranded as the Ecuadorian Sexual Minorities Foundation (, FEMIS), which kept Pelayo as president. FEMIS itself dissolved in 2006.

Later activism Purita Pelayo wrote the book under the pseudonym Alberto Cabral. It was published in November 2017 on the 20th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Ecuador. She was inspired in part by The Men With the Pink Triangle by Heinz Heger, a nonfiction book which focuses on the persecution of gay men during the Holocaust. focuses on police violence against trans women, the foundation of the Coccinelle Association, and the campaign for decriminalization in the late 20th century.

The publication of allowed Pelayo to reconnect with many former members of Coccinelle. On May 17, 2019, the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, Nueva Coccinelle filed a lawsuit against the Ecuadorian state for police violence against transgender women in the 1980s and 1990s. The lawsuit seeks a formal apology and reparations. However, as of March 2022, the lawsuit has not progressed.

On June 24, 2021, Purita Pelayo was named the winner of the year's Patricio Brabomalo Award for her work in support of LGBTQ rights.

In March 2022, Pelayo reported that the owner of a bakery in central Quito hit her with a stick in a transphobic attack.

In 2024, Pelayo published a book of photographs titled (Lightning Under the Bridge) in which she gathered photos from a period of more than twenty years portraying herself and other trans Ecuadorian activists at distinct moments in the movement for decriminalization. The book was part of a project by the Ecuadorian Photographers Association. It received financial backing from the Municipality of Quitos' Secretary of Culture.