The Political is Personal
León, Margarita De
I never met Cesitar. At a meeting of religious leaders on the issue of If homosexuality, his father described him to us as he showed us his picture. arrestE The contrast was curious. While we...
...I recently met two teenagers who mination were expelled from a vocational er that school when the director learned that they were gay...
...This prejudice mucd cannot continue...
...We can lose our basic n court rights to housing, work and the cus- tody of our children if it becomes prison known that we are homosexual, les- bian or transgendered people...
...Some people believe that such actions are a waste of time because they challenge a law that is not enforced...
...This is mistaken...
...In tears, his We SU1 father addressed our group of religious leaders: "Do something...
...more We are all aware that eliminating prejudice goes beyond repealing a t. What particular law...
...The article also serves to mollify the moralistic concerns of some members of the clergy, who say that all human beings have cer- tain basic rights, yet maintain that nonheterosexu- als are less entitled to them because we love and/or have sexual relations with persons of the same sex...
...Nothing- we can only win...
...It is the duty of the state, after all, to enforce its laws...
...That day, the urgency of the appare struggle against the oppression of homosexuals became clear to me...
...It is important to continue this challenge to the judicial system-an action we have called civil dis- obedience in defiance of unjust laws...
...While we dis- day cussed the subject in a technical, almost sanitized manner, Cesitar's father was spend passionate and torn by emotion as he described his son-a brilliant young or r man who, among many other things, was homosexual...
...These nake are not hypothetical situations...
...If I am arrested, every day that I spend in court or prision will make the discrimina- tion we suffer that much more apparent...
...Margarita De Lebn is co-pastor of Christ the Healer Church in Santurce, Puerto Rico...
...The Coalition Against Article 103 and In Favor of The Right To Intimacy, which is comprised of religious, political, feminist and student organizations, reveals that our demands have transcended the so-called gay com- munity...
...Because the law marks hat I nonheterosexuals as criminals, we are vulnerable...
...The state -we can seeks to maintain Article 103 on the win...
...Last November, I turned myself in to the legal authorities confessing my violation of Article 103 of the Penal Code of Puerto Rico, which penalizes same-sex sexual relations...
...In these circumstances, what do I have to lose...
...I say was because will Cesitar could not resist the social pressures against his homosexuality, and as the discr a result, took his own life...
...At the same time, "however, we must realize that this to lose...
...This article originally appeared in the November 20, 1997 issue of Claridad Translated from the Spanish by Lawrence M. La Fountain-Stokes...
...As the days pass and the courts fail to take action against me for the "crimes" I have commit- ted, the hypocrisy and immorality of the system are further revealed...
...law is the institutional framework that legitimizes prejudice...
...It is a matter of life or death...
...Although the courts have attempted to dis- miss my case by saying that sodomy must involve a penis, I will continue to confess my "crime" in defi- ant civil disobedience...
...As someone who is herself marginalized, I have radicalized my option for Puerto Rico's marginalized sectors...
...Through these actions, we call attention to our situation as homosexual, lesbian and transgendered people, and we expose the injustices sanctioned by the state...
...books as a legal justification for the discrimination against homosexuals and lesbians and to use it when it is beneficial to its interests...
...Like the African Americans who engaged in civil disobedience by violating discriminatory laws in the United States during the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s, we, who are also seeking the repeal of unjust laws, are challenging the state to enforce these laws by demanding to be prosecuted for our alleged crimes...
...am Regardless of how dead it is, Article 103 can be activated and enforced at d, every any moment...
...do I hav I have experienced oppression be- Nothin cause I am a woman, a Puerto Rican, black, a lesbian, partially deaf, non- onl Catholic, and an independentista (an advocate for the independence of Puerto Rico...
...The battlefront in this strug- gle is wide and it is growing...
...Just as these identities come together in one person, forming part of a whole, the prejudices against them have one common origin, one root: a hierarchical, patriarchal society...
...Based on this understanding, I believe that any social or political struggle that excludes any marginal group from its discourse and practice is condemned to become an oppressive project...
Vol. 31 • January 1998 • No. 4
