Baena was the first openly nonbinary person to assume a judicial post in Mexico, becoming a magistrate in the Aguascalientes state electoral court, and broke through other barriers in a country where LGBTQ+ people are often targeted with violence.
State prosecutor Jesús Figueroa Ortega said at a news conference that the two displayed injuries apparently caused by a knife or some other sharp object.
The suggestion that suicide was one possibility in the deaths quickly sparked outrage, with LGBTQ+ groups calling it another attempt by authorities to simply brush aside violence against their communities.
Alejandro Brito, director of the LGBTQ+ rights group Letra S, said Baena’s visibility on social media made the magistrate a target and urged authorities to take that into consideration in their investigation.
Baena appeared in regularly published photos and videos wearing skirts and heels and toting a rainbow fan in court offices and advocated on social media platforms, drawing hundreds of thousands of followers.
While Mexico has made significant steps in reducing anti-LGBTQ+ violence, Brito’s Letra S documented at least 117 lesbian, gay and bisexual and transgender people slain.
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