History in the Making The Homosexual Liberation Movement in Chile
Robles, Víctor Hugo
Midway through the ceremony in which Patricio Aylwin was being officially nominated as the presidential candidate of the democratic opposition in August, 1989, Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis...
...Before the advent of democracy, it was in part us maricas (queers) who enunciated what others couldn't or wouldn't say...
...This period saw The a, the emergence of the participa first lesbian organiza- the tions and the birth of human , the gay economy in mar Santiago...
...These funds enabled the movement to set various strategies in motion which within a year would bring the MOVILH its first political victories...
...homosexuals were arrested at varimnn nioht cnntc in the ritV and registered in police records as homosexuals...
...7. The letter sent by Cardenal Ratzinger to Catholic bishops on the question of the incorporation of homosexuals into pastoral pro- grams reads: "No pastoral project may include organizations to which homosexual persons are associated without clearly estab- lishing that homosexual activity immoral...
...The MOVILH responded to the call and a group of its members, dressed in black and with their faces covered, joined the march...
...One of their most memorable performances was their staging of the cueca sola in the foyer of the building that housed the Chilean Human Rights Commission...
...The most i During several months in 1992, lesson of ti the Democratic Party of the Left (PDI)-a party formed in the participa early 1990s primarily by former members of the Communist human ri Party-offered the MOVILH its WaS that th headquarters as a place to hold their meetings...
...At the same time, however, the rise of frpp-mnrkpt idpnlov allnwud for the emergence of the first gay dance clubs...
...Simultaneously, the organization was engaged in intense internal discussions about what the immediate goals and priorities of the movement should be...
...The presence of this law motivated a series of funding proposals to international organizations with the purpose of defending those charged with violating the infamous Article 365...
...While the organization awaited response on the funding proposals in 1991 and 1992, it consolidated a democratically elected steering committee which included Rolando Jimfnez, Marcos Rufz and others who would become the visible leadership of the movement...
...In the meantime, other leaders had struck a deal with the director of the Investigations Police, who offered to destroy the files created on those who had been arrested in exchange for the withdrawal of the injunction...
...The heavy regulation of sexuality that has always existed in Chile intensified during the Pinochet dictatorship as society became increasingly militarized...
...political and cultural arenas...
...7 It was even more surprising considering that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Chile has gone out of its way to defend the most reactionary and conservative postitions on the issue of homosexuality...
...We participated in the march," said a MOVILH spokesperson, "because we felt the need to voice our opinion about an issue that is directly related to the everyday reality of homosexuals-respect for the dignity and the rights of all people...
...Worried that having two gay candidates in the same race would weaken an already weak base of support, a primary election, which became known as "the pink primaries," was organized...
...It changed the tone of the movement's presence in the public arena, signaling the beginning of a period in which politically organized homosexuals would begin to demand their right to be heard and included in the larger processes of change sweeping the Chilean political landscape...
...h:1...
...While the Chamber of Deputies moved to approve the amendments to Article 365 in August, 1995, the debate was soon overshadowed by conservatives, who vigorously argued for the penalization of all homosexual relations...
...6. Los Tiempos (Santiago), January 1993...
...These new struggles are small, but they are terribly important...
...Translated from the Spanish by NACLA...
...Our name alone was intended to produce allergic reactions within a scene characterized by conformism and complicity with .tnte repreRsiCn We de.nounced hypocrisy and accomodation to the dictatorship...
...Simultaneously, the Triangulo Abierto radio program initiated a campaign to collect signatures of support f _lr ; 11 1 A oIm nle ecLtuas, alL sLs an other public personalities, with the intent of raising the campaign's visibility...
...he MOVILH's first strategy to get Article 365 of the Penal Code repealed was to broaden the scope of the debate to include larger sectors of civil society...
...4. Document presented at the Coronel Gathering in 1991...
...The victims were countless...
...On the foyer floor, Las Yeguas placed a large cloth map of Latin America and covered it with broken glass...
...The protest did not impede the elections, which were won by the MOVILH's candidate, but it revealed the deep political crisis of the organization...
...He is a former member of the Steering Committee of the Homosexual Liberation Movement (MOVILH), and he directed and produced the radio program Open Triangle between 1993 and 1996...
...It seems almost unthinkable, in fact, at a time when attempts to legislate divorce are met with strong opposition in the Senate...
...During this period, the organization began to openly and aggressively challenge state policies and political leaders...
...Soon after e MOVILH's this incident, in June, 1993, the first transmission of Triangulo on in the Abierto (Open Triangle) hit Santiago's airwaves...
...Ibafiez del Campo was a populistturned-dictator who, during his tenure as president (1952-1958), ordered the drowning of dozens of homosexuals in the port city of Valparaiso...
...In early 1994, an AIDS prevention commission was established to work specifically with male prostitutes and transvestites-by far the most marginalized sector of the homosexual population...
...5 The gay presence in this march for human rights-perhaps the central issue of Chile's transition to democracy-shaped the future of the movement's political activity...
...Through performances like these, the group inserted the issue of homosexual oppression into the larger discourses of the opposition to the Pinochet regime and situated the political demands of homosexuals squarely within the horizons of the left...
...For several years after its formation in 1984, it was the sole voice of Chilean homosexuals both nationally and internationally...
...In the immediate future, overcoming the MOVILH's internal problems may depend on the HIV-positive individuals who are slowly beginning to organize, drawing on the brutal immediacy of their circumstances to overcome the conflicts and divisions within the gay movement...
...In the end, the gay candidate made a sparse showing in the municipal election...
...This all changed in 1988 with the irruption of Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis onto the scene...
...Instead, the strategy was simply to move on and channel the energy of those that remained toward the campaign against the sodomy law, which took on renewed vigor in 1995...
...This generated much controversy within the MOVILH, and most of the membership rejected the deal...
...The explosion of the global AIDS crisis was completely ignored by the Pinochet regime, and in the early 1990s, the price of this silence became visible as AIDS-related deaths grew in numbers and visibility...
...Some people were shocked, while some of the women were sympathetic...
...To no one's surprise, it was broken up by the police, who threatened participants with violence and arrest if they did not disperse...
...Until then, the Chilean public had only seen North American and European homosexuals willingly show their faces on television...
...In March, 1993, the organization held a press conference to announce its participation in the second annual human rights march, prompting wide public debate after nationally televised news reports showed images of the more than 300 gays, lesbians and transvestites who attended the press conference without concealing their identities...
...Suspecting foul play, the MOVILH immediately organized a demonstration demanding that the government appoint a special investigator...
...The responses varied widely...
...It is quite unlikely that the Senate will approve any piece of legislation that either totally or partially decriminalizes sodomy due to its squarely conservative composition...
...Given the climate of perti e o it g! vasive homophobia and violence in Chilean society, this was a daring act...
...Political disagreements over issues like the inclusion of transvestites in the movement continue to fuel conflict among the leadership...
...local theaters at the time...
...Yet suspicions and fears multiplied when the Chilean Corporation for AIDS Prevention received a phone call attributing the fire to the Comando Carlos Ibailez del Campo...
...The program was transmitted weekly on Radio Tierra, a feminist radio station...
...In addition, the crisis that is currently consuming the gay movement means its ability to push for change has been seriously weakened...
...Triangulo Abierto remains on the airwaves along with a daily radio program produced and hosted by Pedro Lemebel, an openly gay writer...
...They accused the movement of discriminating against transvestites and voiced opposition to the whole idea of putting energy and resources into the electoral game...
...Triangulo hts march Abierto, the first gay/lesbian * movement radio program in Chile's history, became a space for the diffusion re explicitly of the ideas and demands of the movement and a link between joins other homosexuals and the national g les...
...Because he announced his candidacy without consulting the movement, the MOVILH rejected it and decided to launch its own candidate...
...On June 28, 1991, for example, a group of homosexuals came together for a formal workshop on civil rights organized by the Chilean Corporation for AIDS Prevention, which was created in 1987 to promote education and support for those affected by AIDS.3 Out of these discussions, the Homosexual Liberation Movement (MOVILH) was founded...
...Through such strategies, which also included mailings and a variety of public events, the movement was able to insert the "homosexual question" into national public debates...
...During a state visit to Europe, for example, President Aylwin was asked whether there was discrimination against homosexuals in Chile...
...They represent the hope for a movement that, in spite of its errors, keeps its visions of a just society alive...
...The MOVILH's latest round young girl of internal prob- rches in a lems began in dlelight vigil on May, 1996, when mrnational AIDS more than 40 in downtown tiago in 1996...
...Amidst crises and defeats, Chilean gay and lesbians activists are slowly forging new arenas of struggle within the very spaces opened by the movement's activism over the past six years...
...As a result, the MOVILH grew as a visible presence in society and in the gay world, particularly after the coverage it received in the Writer and perfor- national press after its first mance artist Pedro appearance in the public politi- Lemeltbel creates d headdress of hypodermic needles to call attention to the problem of AIDS...
...Legal issues were also part of these discussions, particularly the existence of Article 365 of the Penal Code, which punishes sodomy with imprisonment...
...But up to this point, the presence of gay and lesbian organizations and the enunciation of their demands had been discrete in character...
...Interestingly, this phenomenon paralleled a much more dramatic emergence of topless bars in which female prostitution became quasi-legal...
...On September 4, 20 homosexuals died in a fire at La Divine, a popular gay dance club in Valparaiso, in one of the worst fires in that city's history...
...The police said that the fire was the result of a short circuit, and the courts closed the case without any substantial investigation...
...l;klP...
...We came together to provoke," said one member in an interview...
...Workshop participants discussed the causes and dimensions of the discrimination of sexual minorities and agreed to "organize homosexuals, educate and create consciousness about their reality, create a political strategy to gain access to the centers of power, propitiate changes and promote freedom of expression...
...The first public gay march took place in 1972, yet few remember the group of homosexuals and transvestites that marched through downtown Santiago demanding rights for "the third sex," a phrase they picked up from the title of a popular movie playing in Victor Hugo Robles is a Chilean journalist and independent activist...
...In Concepci6n, a group of lesbians founded the Lesbians in Action (LEA) Collective...
...The ties of some of the leadership to the Communist Party and the MOVILH's insistence on claiming political spaces within the left both opened and closed doors for the movement...
...cal arena...
...As these two gay men "danced alone" wearing only long white skirts, their feet bled and made imprints on the map...
...During its first year, the MOVILH participated in a variety of activities, the most important being the First Congress of Homosexuals held in the southern city of Concepci6n in late 1991...
...In this political context, the decriminalization of...
...He rejected the request, excusing himself by saying his agenda m porta nt was already too busy...
...The gay clubs that emerged in this period, particularly those that attracted a more working-class crowd, were regularly raided by police...
...His denial of any such discrimination prompted MOVILH to request an audience with the President...
...The history of the homosexual movement dates back to the revolutionary days of Salvador Allende's socialist government...
...The intervention of Las Yeguas only briefly disrupted the event, but the unfurling of that banner marked an important shift in the history of the gay movement in Chile...
...Perhaps the most forgotten are the many transvestites who were executed during the days immediately following the coup...
...Despite their diverse political backgrounds, all of the activists came from political sectors that had been involved in the struggle against the military regime...
...3. June 28 is International Gay Pride Day...
...One of the leaders of the movement filed an injunction with the courts...
...Yet it did not take long for difficulties to arise in the movement's precarious relationships with the left...
...VOL XXXI, No 4 JAN/FEB 1998 Z 0 0 <1 37REPORT ON SEXUAL POLITICS New political horizons emerged for the gay movement in the wake of Pinochet's defeat in the plebicite held on October 5, 1988 and the election of Patricio Aylwin to the presidency 14 months later...
...On election day, two transvestites chained themselves inside the offices of the MOVILH to protest the primaries and the strategy of participating in electoral politics...
...The date commemorates the Stonewall riots of 1969 in New York City...
...In order to raise awareness among political leaders, the MOVILH organized a series of meetings with representatives from diverse political organizations...
...Chilean "democracy," after all, allows for nine non-elected members of the Senate who are appointed by the president, the Supreme Court and the National Security Council...
...In a visit to Chile, Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez, who had been approached by the MOVILH during a press conference, publically expressed his support for the campaign during his concerts in Santiago and dedicated one of his most beautiful and well-known love songs to the movement...
...Earlier this year, for example, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling of a lower court that prohibited the exhibition of the film "The Last Temptation of Christ" on the grounds that it denied the divinity of Christ...
...The issue of AIDS is one which again marks us as diseased," said a dissident member to La Naci6n...
...Amidst this controversy, Rolando Jiminez, a former leader of the group, announced his candidacy for the Santiago city council in the 1996 municipal elections on an openly gay/progressive platform...
...If either house rejects the new motion, the issue will be tabled and the law will remain as is...
...Following the tragic incident at La Divine, the MOVILH turned its attention towards the issue of AIDS-a turn that would have a dramatic impact on the future of the organization and of the gay movement in general...
...The PDI simply could not deal with it," said Ricardo Ochoa, a member of the MOVILH...
...Present at the ceremony-which marked the beginning of Aylwin's campaign to be Chile's first democratically elected president since Salvador Allende-were most of the prominent political New political horizons emerged for the gay movement in the wake of Pinochet's defeat...
...It is likely, moreover, that the Senate will become even more conservative in the near future, since several retired generals will claim their place as designated senators and Pinochet will become senator-for-life once he retires as commander-in-chief of the armed forces in March, 1998...
...The gains of 1993 were overshadowed by an apparently deliberate act of extreme violence against a now increasingly visible and vocal homosexual community...
...8. La Nacion (Santiago), June 1995...
...On the day after the march, the headlines of El Clarin, the most popular proAllende daily, reflected the left's disdain for homosexuals: "Faggots take over downtown Santiago...
...A climate of fear also descended on Santiago as anonymous graffiti began to appear on city walls calling for "death to the faggots...
...o Ullly seems ll lllly un ellly...
...he differences which divide the gay movement in Chile remain strong...
...2 Along with their intervention at Aylwin's nomination for the presidency, Las Yeguas staged a series of performances that aggressively "homosexualized" the political and cultural discourses of the time...
...The MOVILH also conducted a survey to identify and prioritize the issues concerning gays and lesbians and developed strategies to reach individuals and break through the atomization created by homophobia and the military regime...
...The march, organized by an ad hoc group of individuals, was an isolated event and had no organization or movement behind it...
...The injunction was not withdrawn and legal actions continued, provoking a definitive political schism within the organization...
...The interventions and performances of this art duo sent shock waves through Santiago's cultural circles...
...Still others made clear their desires to march as far away from the group as possible to avoid any possible confusion, and some motioned to have them expelled from the event...
...Through its participation in the march, the MOVILH learned that the struggle of homosexuals becomes politicized as the movement joins other struggles...
...Workshops on sexuality, politics and civil rights were also organized...
...Soon thereafter, the Constitution, Legislation and Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies proposed modifications to Article 365 which would decriminalize sodomy between consenting adults and only penalize homosexual relations with minors-be they male or female...
...History in the Making: The Homosexual Liberation Movement in Chile 1. El Retornado (Santiago), October 1993...
...The wait was long, for soon came the military coup in 1973, with its bitter history of tortures, deaths and disappearances...
...Midway through the ceremony in which Patricio Aylwin was being officially nominated as the presidential candidate of the democratic opposition in August, 1989, Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis (The Mares of the Apocalypse), a gay performance group, dramatically unfurled a large banner that read "Homosexuals for Change...
...The movement was able to channel demands born of "private" concerns and insert them into a political arena that was being nourished by 38 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 0 0 I IREPORT ON SEXUAL POLITICS the multiple avenues of activity that emerged as Chile returned to democratic rule...
...In addition, the legal case initiated in response to the 1996 arrests was dismissed by the courts...
...In May, 1995, gay leaders met with the parliamentary commissions that were studying possi- hie mnrldfiratinnc tn the endnmv law...
...On the political front, the issue of homosexual rights has been incorporated into the discourses of various political leaders and institutions and shows no signs of disappearing from the political agenda...
...This was particularly common among the left, which was fond of portraying its opponents as effeminate oligarchs of questionable moral character...
...Activists from different political groups participated in these workshops, including several former members of the Communist Party and a number of leaders from social organizations of various kinds...
...Our organization envisions a path that begins with reflection in the context of the feminist experience," said an Ayuquelen member in a press interview, "and recognizes the need to come together to study the issues that emanate from our condition as lesbians...
...While nothing was ever proven, these threats and the fire at La Divine were likely the work of rightwing extremist groups associated with the military and the dictatorship's intelligence services that were extremely angry at the string of political losses they had VoL XXXI, No 4 JAN/FEB 1998 39REPORT ON SEXUAL POLITICS suffered, and who perhaps saw the emergence of the homosexual movement as the clearest manifestation of their loss of power...
...There was no place anywhere on the political spectrum where the virulent homophobia of Chilean society was questioned...
...If any homosexual received national attention in the municipal elections of 1996, it was the transvestite from the northern city of Calama who went to the polls in a dress...
...Yet anecdotes aside, the power struggles and the political contradictions within the homosexual movement greatly debilitated its ability to mobilize homosexuals and have an impact in broader public debates...
...Nevertheless, it was during the 1980s that a semipublic gay nightlife became possible in Santiago...
...Since the homosexual community in Chile is highly atomized and segregated along class lines, the group decided to prioritize issues around which individuals from diverse sectors of society could find common ground, including sexuality, inequality and power relations...
...figures of the opposition to the Pinochet dictatorship, and the event received wide coverage in the national and international media...
...On International AIDS Day in 1993, the organization distributed information and gave away condoms on the busy pedestrian thoroughfares of Santiago's downtown business district, demanding that the state make available funds for AIDS nrevention campaigns among homosexuals and bisexuals...
...The Ayuqulen Lesbian Feminist Collective was the first public organization of its kind...
...They were right, since prior to these proposed modifications, sex between women had never been so much as mentioned within the Chilean legal system...
...There were discussions and exchanges with human rights organizations, professional associations, religious groups, academics and the media...
...In the intense political struggles between supporters and opponents of the Popular Unity government, political figures were often depicted as maricones, or "faggots," in speeches and political cartoons...
...2. Punto Final (Santiago), October 1996...
...In spite of the revolutionary spirit of the times, those years were not a period that would have allowed for a politically organized gay movement...
...At their meeting, a majority of the leadership voted to kick us out...
...The emergence of gay clubs was not a reflection of official tolerance towards homosexuality, but of the tacit recognition of homosexuals as a potential economic market...
...Yet a short time becomes m later, PDI leaders began to question the party's contact with the political as gay movement and eventually stru the leadership voted to end its presence in their offices...
...A violation of human rights," said one MOVILH member, "cannot be resolved by deals between the movement leadership and the aggressors...
...These internal conflicts were never really resolved, because the organization failed to generate critical discussions about the issues at the heart of the problems...
...On the political front, the lesbian community began to organize itself during the latter years of the military regime...
...A bicameral commission was formed to study the possibility of amending the motion, which would then have to be voted on in both houses of Congress...
...We simply cannot struggle to change society's misconceptions about homosexuals if we continue collapsing two very different issues...
...In the meantime, reactionary forces continue to flaunt their power...
...Most of the current designated senators were appointed by Pinochet and have played a crucial role in blocking legislative and constitutional reforms across the board...
...6 Soon after this episode, the MOVILH received news that a congregation of Dutch Catholic nuns had agreed to finance the organization's activities-a surprising occurence given that their support was in direct defiance of the dictates of the Vatican, which explicitly prohibits the incorporation of gay groups into pastoral projects...
...On March 4, 1992, human rights organizations called for a march to commemorate the publication of the report of the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation...
...Soon after the march, a variety of factors--growing social turmoil, a hostile press that portrayed homosexuals as delinquents, the threat of a military coup and the violence with which the gay march was handledforced homosexual activists to return to their ghetto and await better conditions for their struggle...
...The reason they gave was that neither the PDI nor Chilean society as a whole was prepared to deal with a sui generis relationship between a political party and a homosexual movement...
...The motion became stuck in the Senate until September, 1997, when it was finally voted on and rejected...
...During this moment of transition, Chilean homosexuals articulated an organized and militant political voice for the first time...
...Lesbian groups accused the MOVILH of promoting legislation that punished sex between women...
...The absence of any previous political organization made the task particularly difficult...
...Despite the uncertainty about how their presence would be received by the organizers and other participants, the group marched behind a banner that read: "For Our Fallen Brothers and Sisters, the Homosexual Liberation Movement...
...National publishing houses are publishing the works of openly gay writers and critics...
...Many chose not to participate in the primary, and lesbians in the organization openly abstained...
...As a result of this dispute, the AIDS prevention commission of the MOVILH left the organization and formed the Chile Lambda Center, a parallel gay group that focused its work primarily on AIDS prevention...
...4 At the workshop, the MOVILH also defined its main objectives-to organize homosexuals in defense of their rights, to combat discrimination and create awareness among the rest of society about individual liberties, and to promote understanding about homosexuality...
...In fact, that very homophobia underwrote much of political discourse at the time...
...Years earlier, the mothers of the disappeared had appropriated the cueca-Chile's national dance in which a couple flirtatiously dance around one another-to symbolize the disappearance of their male partners by performing the dance alone...
...Gay activists began to take advantage of the political spaces that opened up during Chile's transition to democracy...
...The presence of transvestites in the movement generated serious conA drag qt a coffee Sar financial, flicts however, after a faction within the MOVILH expressed adamant opposition to the liberation with AIDS prevention...
...Currently the program is heard on Radio Nuevo Mundo, a station tied to the Communist Party...
...5. El Canelo (Santiago), July 1992...
...36NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 36 NAGIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON SEXUAL POLITICS The 1980s were difficult years marked by intense protests against the regime, but change was in the air...
Vol. 31 • January 1998 • No. 4
