The sweeping changes in Mexico's political landscape include a striking first: for the first time anywhere in Latin America, an avowed homosexual has won a seat in the country's legislature. In an overwhelmingly Catholic, largely conservative, and strongly male-oriented society, the election of Patria Jimenez, with the full backing of her party, may mark the dawn of a new era for Mexico's gay citizens. PNS associate editor Andrew Reding is senior fellow for hemispheric affairs at the World Policy Institute.

MEXICO CITY -- The head of "The Closet of Sister Juana" is about to take her seat in Mexico's Chamber of Deputies -- a clear sign of change in the land of "machismo."

Patria Jimenez will be the first openly homosexual member of Mexico's legislature in the country's history -- indeed, the first in any legislature in Latin America.

Jimenez is anything but discreet about her sexual orientation. "The Closet" is a Lesbian rights organization named after Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a 17th Century Carmelite nun and renowned Mexican poet. She led this year's "Gay Pride" parade in Tijuana and campaigned with banners proclaiming, "Safe Sex, Save Vote -- Make the Future Yours!"

Her election is remarkable not just for her personal victory, but because it marks a major statement by the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Mexico has a proportional voting system -- each party holds a number of seats in the legislature proportional to the percentage of the popular vote it receives.

Before the election, the party puts out a list showing which individual members will fill the seats. The PRD placed Jimenez twelfth on the list, making it a virtual certainty that she would hold office. With this move, the party effectively identified itself with the struggle to win acceptance of homosexual lifestyles -- a big risk in what is an overwhelmingly Catholic, conservative society. Yet the PRD won about 36 percent of the vote in central Mexico, more than twice what it won in the last election.

That, in turn, gives Jimenez's election significance on the national level. Just as significant, the center-right National Action Party, which generally echoes the Catholic Church's condemnation of homosexuality, lost much of its support in the same district.

The recent election results have given the federal government the political cover it has lacked to carry out a more effective campaign against the spread of the HIV virus and AIDS. The government, hobbled by fears of a right-wing backlash, has refrained from promoting the use of condoms, counseling fidelity and abstinence instead.

That changed abruptly on August 1, when a new nationwide television and billboard campaign carrying the message, "there are many ways to protect oneself from AIDS -- using a condom is one of them." The campaign, which has already drawn fire from conservatives, is primarily aimed at adolescents.

The federal government has also made a major change in its health policy in response to protests by gay and AIDS advocacy groups. The Social Security Institute, which provides health insurance for millions of union members, teachers, and government employees (and individuals who voluntarily pay premiums) now offers advanced AIDS treatment, including protease therapy. (The millions of Mexicans who are unemployed, or self-employed but unable to pay for health insurance, are still uncovered.)

"Machismo," which can be translated as "male-ism," remains deep-seated in Mexico. It exalts "male" traits such as toughness and the will to dominate, and is particularly sensitive to anything that hints of feminism in men.

This all lends  itself to a perspective that differs from the US view. The tendency in Mexico is to see men who take the active role with male partners as regaining their manhood, while those who take the passive role are not. Transvestites, with their ostentatious adoption of female traits, are particularly despised. Between 1990 and 1995, more than two dozen transvestites were murdered in Mexico -- with local police involved, or complicit, in most cases.

But even here, change is underway. Local governments, long run by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, have been swept out of office. Even where they have been replaced by PAN, a new ethic of respect for human rights is taking hold. Though adamant about the immorality of homosexual behavior, PAN leaders have been equally insistent that homosexuals must be treated as human beings.

With Patria Jimenez about to take the oath of office on September 1, with the gay-friendly PRD now the nation's leading opposition -- an opposition that now has enough votes to control the Chamber of Deputies -- this may be just the beginning of a new deal for Mexico's homosexuals.