This year's elections in Mexico have the highest number of LGBTQ+ candidates thanks to the new rules implemented by the National Electoral Institute (INE) for parties to nominate indigenous, disabled, Afro-Mexican, migrant and sexually diverse people, as well as political activism from the LGBTQ+ community. 

Of the more than 5,300 candidacies for the different positions that responded to an INE identity questionnaire, 1.9% of the candidates identified themselves as part of the LGBT community. The majority of these candidacies are in Movimiento Ciudadano, with 30%, followed by the nascent Redes Sociales Progresistas with 16.5% and finally the center-left opposition Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) with 13.5%. The government party, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) only registered 1.94%, below the National Action Party (4.85%).

"They have to be represented there because that is how our Mexican society is, we have a diversity of people and we manifest ourselves differently, but also because these people can help us look for better solutions to problems", said electoral counselor Adriana Favela.

Movimiento Ciudadano (MC), presents 44 LGBTQ+ candidacies registered by INE to renew the Chamber of Deputies in the mid-term elections, among them the candidacy of Roshell Terranova, a trans artist from Mexico City. "Before there was this legend that we are a minority, and that is not true, because at least one person of sexual diversity exists in every Mexican family... So where is the minority? We have to work for everyone," Terranova commented in an interview with EFE.

Terranova hopes to reach Congress with the hope of promoting the protection of the rights of the LGBTQ+ community throughout the country. He presents a broad human rights agenda that also includes other historically invisible and discriminated groups. "We have to get our act together, the solution is in the citizen, we know for sure how we have been governed in the past, how we are being governed in the present and Movimiento Ciudadano is an optimistic third option," he said.

Candidates representing sexual diversity, such as Roberto Alviso, from the citizens' collective El Futuro Florece por Nuevo León, hope that their nominations will serve to inspire others in the community who continue to suffer from discrimination. "Just before it wasn't visible, but I think we've always been there. This electoral process simply amplifies that visibility, and I'm excited to see it too," Alviso said. 

In recent years the LGBTQ+ community has fought for visibility and active participation in politics in the region, to work towards the eradication of gender identity discrimination, among other struggles.