Guanajuato, Gto., January 25, 2018.- One of the topics that worry and those who Dr. Ericka López Sánchez works, is the acknowledgement of the political and civil rights of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community.

Therefore, her current research compares three cities: Tijuana, Mexico City and Guanajuato; with the purpose to observe how in these three regions the public policy in human rights has translated and how the subjects make these rights as their own.

Her research is qualitative, meaning, she collects data based on observing natural behaviors. Her research techniques are: surveys with open answers to then interpret the meanings, observation and focus groups.

The methodology she uses is called social representations, to which she defined as "images, information, attitudes that people have about their everyday referents and with which they organize their life, this methodology has two variants: impacts in the conscious part and in the unconscious. The social representations derive from social psychology, they ask the people and without hesitation they answer and reveal something."

Dr. Ericka López is a professor-researcher at the Division of Law, Politics and Government of the University of Guanajuato and recently entered the National Researchers System.

"Mexico City is a place known as a friendly place in which many rights have been won, then Guanajuato with no right at all and Tijuana that, in legal terms there isn't any right, but being a border zone, it becomes a highly interesting context to build rights, not only for the conational but with people from South America", she said.

The researcher mentioned that in cities like Guanajuato, the sexual diversity is "pathologized", "so the LGBT community grows with the idea that they don't deserve rights. Many times, lesbians and homosexuals pass as heterosexual to have their rights in the public space. In the case of transgender people, it is more difficult. So, they stay margined."

She also mentioned that the situation of the transgender people is complex, with time they have adopted the idea that they are criminals or that they are sick, so they conform with any right that they are granted. In this sense, for the researcher is important to re-educate or create a different mindset accompanied of a public policy that "un-pathologizes."

It is worthy to mention that the professor of the University of Guanajuato has a Ph.D. in Social Studies specialized in Political Processes by the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana; with research internships in the Spanish American Institute of the Universidad de Salamanca, Spain; Master's in political Sociology by the Institute of Research Dr. José María Luis Mora. She studied journalism and collective communication in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, which she concluded with the medal "Gabino Barreda".

Her professional experience is both in the academic and empiric parts. She has taught at UNAM, UAM and private universities in bachelor's and postgraduate in Mexico City and Guanajuato. Likewise, she has co-worked in research for the National Council to Prevent Discrimination and the Latin American Institute of the Educational Communication. She has experience in political marketing.

Currently, next to Dr. Jesús Aguilar, they have the radio show "Libertad... es", a production of the Academic Body "Democracy, Civil Society and Freedoms."

Among her research lines, there is political culture of the government class and functionaries, gender and democracy, citizenship and sexual diversity.