Derricia Castillo-Salazar (born 1988), also known as Derricia Jael Castillo, is a Belizean military officer, aircraft maintenance officer of the

Belize Defence Force The Belize Defence Force (BDF) is the military of Belize, and is responsible for protecting the sovereignty of the country. The BDF is under the Ministry of National Defence and Border Security, which is currently headed by Hon. Florencio Marin Jr ...

(BDF) and

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

activist. She is the co-founder and president of Our Circle (Belize), an organization dedicated to the inclusion of the LGBT community.

Biography

After a year-long training to learn how a

rotorcraft A rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotary wings or rotor blades, which generate lift by rotating around a vertical mast. Several rotor blades mounted on a single mast are referred to as a rotor. The Internati ...

operates, she is among 13 trained technicians in charge of keeping in deployment conditions three helicopters of the Belize Defence Force, as well as the first helicopter maintenance personnel of the BDF after the British Arm Training and Support Unit Belize scaled down their operations in 2011. Since Castillo co-founded the voluntary organization Our Circle in 2014, it has engaged approximately 200 members of the

LGBT community The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay men, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a comm ...

, as well as provided safe spaces to educate, empower and build the community in Belize. She has assisted in the creation and implementation a Belize Defence Force HIV Response, spoken at the 38th meeting of

UNAIDS The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) (, ONUSIDA) is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The mission of UNAIDS is to lead, strengthen and support an e ...

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, worked as a conflict mediator, and is a member of the Caribbean Women's Alliance for Diversity and Equality. In 2016 she was awarded the minister's award by Education and Youth Minister Patrick Faber as part of Youth Month. After Castillo attributed the award to her LGBT work, minister Faber claimed that that was not the reason she was given the award, making it clear that "her sexual orientation or her work were not the problem" but that "he was upset about the misrepresentation of the award". Faber also declared that he was considering revoking it. The minister claimed afterwards he will not be taking the award away, posted an apology to Castillo and mentioned that while Castillo's work for the LGBT community was not considered when giving her the award, it should have been. On March 29, 2017,

chargé d'affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...

Adrienne Galanek Adrienne Galanek is an American diplomat. She has served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Guyana since July 2, 2022. Galanek succeeded Ambassador Carlos R. Moreno in January 2017 as the Chargé d'Affaires at the United ...

of the

United States embassy The United States has the second most diplomatic missions of any country in the world after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as observer state Vatican City and non-member countries Kosovo a ...

awarded Derricia Castillo as the U.S. Department of State’s International Women of Courage Award nominee for Belize for her work for inclusion of the LGBT community in Belize and AIDS prevention, policy, and response within the Belize Defence Force during the 12th Annual Outstanding Women’s Awards Ceremony, along with Jane Ellen Mary Usher, recognized as the Embassy’s Woman of the Year 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castillo-Salazar, Derricia Living people Belizean women Belizean activists Belizean LGBT rights activists Belizean military personnel Belizean LGBT people 1988 births 21st-century LGBT people