Patricio Ahumada Garay received a life sentence, while Alejandro Angulo Tapia and Raul Lopez Fuentes were sentenced to 15-year terms and Fabian Mora received seven years in prison following their convictions in the murder of Daniel Zamudio.
The four men were convicted by a three-judge panel of first-degree murder in the killing of Zamudio, a 24-year old gay man, earlier this month.
Zamudio was found beaten unconscious in a Santiago park with swastikas carved into his skin and cigarette burns. He was beaten with glass bottles and his right leg broken before he was abandoned on March 3, 2012.
Zamudio spent 25 days in the hospital before he died.
The convicted men were 19 to 25 years old at the time of the attack.
Applause from Zamudio's family and friends rang out in the courtroom as the sentences were read out.
In spite of the sentencing, Zamudio's family and Chilean LGBT activists don't believe the men were punished harshly enough.
Outside the courtroom, Zamudio's mother, Jacqueline Vera, told reporters that she regretted that her son's killers didn't receive harsher sentences, the Associated Press reported.
"The four of them should have gotten life in prison because they were all part of the beating of Daniel," said Vera. "I just want them to rot in prison for what they did. Let them dry up behind bars."
Rolando Jimenez, president of the Gay Liberation and Integration Movement, was also disappointed.
"This leaves a bitter taste in my mouth because they deserved much stiffer sentences. Unfortunately, Chile's legislation doesn't allow it," said Jimenez. "We're tired of fighting to end the brutal attacks on people because of their sexual orientation."
Zamudio's murder inspired the Chilean legislature to pass an anti-discrimination law last year that had languished in Congress for seven years. President Sebastian Pinera fast-tracked the bill after Zamudio's murder.
Australian court challenges ACT marriage equality law
As expected, the Australian high court is challenging the constitutionality of the Australian Capital Territory's newly minted same-sex marriage law that passed October 22.
The case likely will be heard in mid-December.
Last week, the ACT legalized same-sex marriage in a narrow vote.
The law was crafted to withstand the high court's scrutiny, but territories have weaker protection from federal intervention than states do, reported Gay Star News.
In other New South Wales parliament news, a motion condemning so-called gay conversion therapy was passed by the Legislative Assembly October 23.
IACHR alarmed by trans murders
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has expressed concern about the high murder rate of transgender individuals and an increase in violence against LGBT individuals in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The organization, which operates like the United Nations for the Americas, was particularly concerned about reports of 32 murders of transgender individuals in August and September of this year alone, along with reports of seven incidents of mob attacks and two incidents of police abuse. The organization called upon member states to take action to stop the violence, according to an October 24 news release.
Brazil has been hit hard by the violence and is of concern to human rights officials.
In August and September alone more than 30 murders of transgender women was reported to the Organization of American States. The murders occurred in Brazil (20), Colombia (one), El Salvador (one), Honduras (one), Mexico (five), the United States (three), and Venezuela (one). Additionally, reports of serious attacks against transgender women were reported in Brazil (three), Guyana (one) and Panama (one).
One transgender woman who works as a human rights defender in Argentina reported a serious attack.
Gay men were also the victims of attacks and murder. Within the same two months 24 cases of murders of gay men were reported to IACHR. The murders occurred in Brazil (22), the United States (one) and Jamaica (one).
Five lesbians were also reported to be murdered in Brazil.
Violent attacks against gay men and lesbians were lower, but still present, with reports of two in Argentina, two in Brazil, and seven in the United States. Health care professionals in Mexico reported an increase in attacks on gay men showing public affection. One emergency room doctor reported receiving as many as 20 cases a month.
Reports of abuse, mob violence, and murders of LGBT people in the Caribbean have also increased. Within a two-month period between August and September, IACHR received reports of at least five attacks in Jamaica and two in Haiti where mobs barricaded victims, threw stones and Molotov cocktails, and called for "lynching of gay men."
On August 18, the commission was informed about two gay men in the Dominican Republic who were in a park when they were allegedly arrested, detained overnight, humiliated and mistreated by police due to their sexual orientation.
Reports of increased violence against LGBT individuals, which IACHR links to laws that criminalize homosexuality, came out three days after the Unit on the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Bisexual and Intersex Persons in the Americas launched a survey for a regional report of violence against LGTBI persons in the Americas.
The survey started on October 21 and will close on November 25.
For more information, contact [email protected] with "Questionnaire on Violence" in the subject line.
Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at 00+1-415-221-3541, Skype: heather.cassell, or email [email protected].