Gay Rights: Out of the Closet and Into La Calle
Lind, Amy
Like many gay-pride marches throughout the world, last year's Gay/Lesbian/Transvestite/Transsexual Pride March in Buenos Aires was held on June 28 to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in...
...Some hopeful signs have emerged recently...
...In response to the dramatic rise in murders of male prostitutes and transvestites in Ecuador, for example, gay activists have sought to make links between prostitution laws and violence against gays and lesbians...
...Indeed, upper-class gay men and lesbians, who often enjoy the protection that their social status bestows, are less likely to be the target of such violence...
...Similarly, the traditional left has often criticized both women's and gay-rights movements for "dividing" the family and, therefore, the revolutionary movement...
...The "Edict Against Public Scandals," which punishes those "who disturb with flirtatious remarks" and prohibits "public exhibition of persons wearing or disguised with clothes of the opposite gender," has been used to arrest gay men, lesbians and transvestites...
...In this sense, the problem of human rights abuses against sexual minorities is directly related to issues of class and race...
...Legal and extra-legal practices which deny the human rights of sexual minorities-including the basic right to life-are often premised on the notion that homosexuals are a "danger" to society...
...In a single sweep last February, 160 people were arrested under the charges of cross-dressing and prostitution...
...It is precisely because of this violence, however, that many of those who protested in the streets were cautious about publicly revealing their identities...
...Increasingly, people are willing to take the risk of "coming out...
...The origins of the ordinance date back several decades, but this new version has received public attention because it renews the legal power of the local police to arrest homosexuals, and it makes extralegal police practices like extortion more likely to occur...
...Funding for human rights and HIV/AIDS-related projects for gay and lesbian NGOs has contributed to this institutional strengthening, as has the sheer dedication of activists to build local coalitions and transnational networks...
...Fujimori referred to homosexuality as one form of "subversion" which the state needed to eliminate, and several gay members of the foreign service were expelled from their long-held jobs...
...In Chile, it is likely that the Senate will approve a liberalization of the Sodomy Law so that it applies only to persons under the age of 18, despite a Senate committee recommendation to uphold the law...
...Regional and international networks have been formed as well, thus creating a stronger institutional base for activists to document abuses and challenge specific legislation and processes of violence...
...In practice, however, this is not an easy task...
...Vol )(XX, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 1997 7 a s a z a a w Vol XXX, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 1997 7UPDATE / GAY RIGHTS The common denominator of the so-called "disposables" is, according to Ordofiez, their poverty...
...On one hand, the demonstrators publicly manifested their pride-and anger-as they walked to the Congress from the Plaza de Mayo, an important public place for political expression in Argentina...
...Death-squad activities occur in the context of a more general hatred and fear of any group deemed an "other" by the dominant society...
...The banner reads, "Homosexuals United...
...Paramilitary groups and "social cleansing" death squads claim to be taking justice into their own hands by "disposing" of those viewed as "dirtying" the social fabric of society...
...ILGA activists have worked closely with Amnesty International, IGLHRC and several regional organizations to introduce sexual orientation into the UN human rights frameworks...
...Latin America...
...Systematic, accurate documentation in recent years by gayrights groups has highlighted the scope of the problem-and has provided a basis for local organizations to develop alliances with like-minded organizations in their cities and in other regions and countries...
...Some 1,500 people, representing over 22 organizations from diverse regions of the country, were present-almost double the number of participants in the previous year's march...
...While much needs to be done to build trust among organizations and to develop more effective, shared agendas, recent trends point in the right direction...
...criminatory state policies and laws...
...The Sandinistas, for example, supported Nicaragua's gay-rights groups in opposing Chamorro's anti-sodomy law, which they saw as unconstitutional...
...Police brutality has increased Out of the Closet and Into La Calle 6NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Violence against sexs harassinor sexual mins on the rise in Latin America...
...Some gay activists have nevertheless continued to work in the loosely defined left while struggling for gay rights...
...More brutal forms of repression against sexual minorities have also risen alarmingly over the past few years, especially in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru...
...Much has yet to be done to further enable communication among individual organizations and, most importantly, to work towards creating social spaces in which homophobic attitudes and oppressive legal and political structures can be transformed...
...But because Latin American societies have so thoroughly stigmatized homosexuals as "sexually deviant," they and other sexual minorities have felt the need to develop their own organizations...
...Individuals arrested under these edicts have been held by police for up to 30 days and fined...
...A protester at the gay-pride march in Mexico City last year This has led some gay activists to abandon the left, partly because of their past experiences of being marginalized within leftist political parties and organizations...
...What has emerged through this historical process is a variety of new human rights and political agendas...
...Sexual minorities have attempted to carve out alternative political spaces which challenge these moralistic premises of both the right and the left...
...Shortly after announcing his "selfcoup" in April, 1992, in which he closed Congress and suspended the Constitution, President Alberto Fujimori announced a restructuring of the foreign service, arguing that the Peruvian government was threatened by corruption and political dissent from within...
...Such legislation serves as "a constant threat," according to a recent report by the Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America, "allowing the police to intimidate, abuse and extort lesbians, gays and transvestites...
...And in Guadalajara, Mexico, although no national law criminalizes homosexuality, the governing right-wing National Action Party (PAN) passed a local ordinance last December which outlaws "abnormal sexual behavior...
...In Brazil, the Gay Group of Bahia (GGB) has documented more than 1,200 cases of assassinations of lesbians, gay men and transvestites since 1982...
...Paramilitary groups have become more visible in their selfstyled morality campaigns to "clean the streets" of "disposable" sectors of the population, including gays and ile ll as transvestites, transsexuals, male prostitutes, street children and other social "undesirables...
...For example, police edicts, which are not laws as such, but regulations set in place nearly 50 years ago and applied at the discretion of the Argentine police, have been used extensively to harass sexual minorities...
...Many of the marchers in Buenos Aires, fearful of the consequences of "coming out," wore masks or partially covered their faces as they marched through the downtown streets of the capital city...
...Increasingly, local groups are participating in regional and international networks and conferences, thereby developing a more adequate network to respond to processes of violence as well as overcoming some of the isolation felt in the act of local organizing...
...It has played a crucial role in monitoring human rights abuses against sexual minorities and in providing support for sexual minorities and for people living with HIV/AIDS...
...The marchers also showed their growing discontent with Argentine laws and institutional practices which legitimize police brutality against gay men, lesbians, transvestites, transsexuals and other sexual minorities...
...The group says that at least 12 anti-gay death squads operate in various parts of the country, including the "Group for Hunting Homosexuals" in Bel6m do Pard and a neo-nazi skinhead group in Sao Paulo whose members wear t-shirts saying "Death to Homosexuals...
...While gay and lesbian activists who openly protest this violence face serious risks, they are increasingly wicampa ing to the ake thoe risksable" sectors over the past few years, as have measures harassing sexual minorities, such as raids of gay and lesbian bars...
...More often than not, it is homosexuals, prostitutes or transvestites who are poor or members of racial or ethnic minorities that are targeted and who suffer the most brutal forms of violence and discrimination...
...This was evident in the strong presence of regional activists at the 1994 UN Human Rights conference in Vienna and the 1995 UN Women's Conference in Beijing...
...And in Colombia, 39 groups have engaged in "social cleansing" activities, according to activist Juan Pablo Ordofiez, including the groups, "Death to Dangerous Homosexuals" and "Death to Homosexuals...
...Such notions of the family as the basic building block of society, to be preserved at all cost, are at the root of many military and formal democratic government projects, as well as what social critic Jean Franco has referred to as the "gender wars" launched by the Catholic Church in recent years...
...In many respects, this turnout was an expression of the growing political visibility of sexual minorities in Argentina...
...More than ever before, Latin American gay and lesbian organizations are acting simultaneously on several levels-locally, regionally and internationally-to bring the rights of sexual minorities to the forefront and to place pressure on national governments to reform disThe Gay Group of Bahia says over 1,200 lesbians, gay men and transvestites have been killed since 1982 in Brazil by death squads like the "Group for Hunting Homosexuals...
...Many organizations throughout the region are now members of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), the first international gay-rights organization to gain consultative status with the UN...
...Other groups have also sought to end the marginalization of transvestites and transsexuals in the broader struggle of sexual minorities, as in Argentina's pride march...
...Although homosexuality was by no means condoned during the military rule of Gen...
...O` nly a few countries, including Nicaragua, Ecuador and Chile, have laws which criminalize homosexual practices...
...The Tipac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), which was considered defunct in Peru until last December's hostage-taking at the Japanese ambassador's residence, killed at least three gay men in Pucallpa and Tarapoto in 1990, saying homosexuals are "products of capitalism" and "anti-revolutionary...
...Elsewhere in Latin America, existing laws designed to uphold tution to arrest transvestites and male sex workers...
...In Nicaragua, for example, the conservative government of Violeta Chamorro passed an "public morality" are being applied with renewed vigor against sexual minorities...
...anti-sodomy law in 1992 which mandates prison sentences of up to three years for "anyone who induces, promotes, propagandizes or practices in scandalous form sexual intercourse between persons of the same sex...
...An antidiscrimination clause was also introduced in the city's legislation, making Buenos Aires the first Latin American city with legislation forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation...
...Pointing out how the state and legal system seek to control the seemingly most natural, intimate, private aspects of people's lives provides a powerful critique of the traditional view that the family is a nonpolitical, purely private institution...
...Local activists would not consider this a total victory, since it would constitute an age of consent for homosexuals that is higher than that permitted for heterosexual relations, but they still see it as a step forward because it would decriminalize sodomy for adults...
...A similar wave of police raids of gay and lesbian bars and nightclubs threatened Argentine sexual minorities in 1995 and 1996...
...Many of these activists have been key to the formation of autonomous networks of NGOs defending and promoting gay rights...
...n important strategy of activist groups has been to challenge age-old stereotypes about homosexuality and sexual difference as these stereotypes become the bases for laws and repressive political practices...
...While no law in Argentina specifically criminalizes homosexuality, the police have resorted to a number of other legal instruments to harass individuals they consider "dangerous...
...While violence and homophobia persist, the public decision-making arena is sure to be transformed by the presence of gay and lesbian organizations which have emerged from the closet to challenge homophobia and traditional moralistic views of sexual identity...
...More than 50 transvestites and transsexuals were arrested every night in Buenos Aires in 1995 and the first half of 1996, according to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), a non-profit organization based in San Francisco...
...And it is evident in the growing presence of organizations like the Mexican lesbian-rights group called the Closet of Sor Juana, which has played a major role in pushing for antidiscriminatory legislation and in including sexual minorities in human rights agendas at local and international levels...
...In Nicaragua and Brazil, for example, gay-rights groups have successfully gained the support of 8NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 8UPDATE / GAY RIGHTS conventional leftist parties for specific initiatives...
...Pride marches have been organized in other countries, most notably in Mexico and Brazil...
...Augusto Pinochet in Chile, upper-class gay men's clubs that aligned themselves ideologically with the dictatorship were relatively unaffected by the military curfews that regulated the daily lives of most Chileans...
...Left-wing insurgent groups supposedly fighting for social justice have also adopted the dominant society's hatred of sexual minorities...
...Yet, while risks remain for gay and lesbian activists who engage in open protest, people are increasingly willing to take them...
...Obviously, many of the gay-rights groups in existence today have their roots in the human rights and anti-authoritarian struggles of the 1970s and 1980s, as well as in the burgeoning women's movement, the organized left and other popular struggles...
...Last January, under the guise of a campaign to crack down on prostitution known as "Operation Thunder," Peruvian police detained over 300 people in a series of raids on gay nightclubs...
...For example, police in Peru have used laws against prostiActivists march at a parade for International AIDS Day in Mexico City in 1993...
...The need felt by many demonstrators to conceal their identities highlights the contradictions of becoming politically visible for sexual minorities in Amy Lind teaches sociology and Latin American Studies at Brown University...
...Peruvian activist Rebeca Sevilla, former director of MHOL, was ILGA's co-secretary general between 1992 and 1995...
...Activist protests in Argentina helped get the police edicts repealed this past August, ending a wave of repression against sexual minorities...
...While many progressive groups have supported this growing activism of Latin America's gay and lesbian community, the increased visibility has also triggered a backlash against gay-rights organizations...
...In some cases, these laws have existed for decades, but in others, new BY AMY LIND NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 6UPDATE / GAY RIGHTS anti-gay laws or legal campaigns have emerged...
...Such protection is not always assured, however, as recent events in Peru suggest...
...Many activist groups have also begun addressing complex questions of homophobia in relation to broader processes of violence and discrimination in Latin American societies...
...And throughout Latin America, gay and lesbian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have played important roles in launching educational campaigns and in monitoring human rights abuses against sexual minorities...
...Because homosexuality is perceived as a threat to what is considered the foundation of nation-building-the family-it is seen as a threat to "preserving the nation...
...ILGA, which started out as an umbrella organization of gay and lesbian organizations in Europe, now has a membership of over 300 organizations from over 70 countries, and has encouraged members from Latin America, Africa and Asia to assume leadership positions within the organization...
...The Workers' Party (PT) has also challenged anti-gay legislation in Brazil...
...While only a small number of gay-rights organizations existed in Argentina-as in other Latin American countries-just two decades ago, today a broad range of organizations have emerged, reflecting the diverse experiences, types of oppression and political activism of sexual minorities...
...The "Edict Against Public Dancing" punishes any proprietor who "allows men to dance together...
...Like many gay-pride marches throughout the world, last year's Gay/Lesbian/Transvestite/Transsexual Pride March in Buenos Aires was held on June 28 to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City...
...The Homosexual Movement of Lima (MHOL), for example, which was founded in 1983, has become an important institution representing the rights of gays and lesbians in Peru...
...The oppression of sexual minorities is closely linked to other forms of class, race, ethnic and gender oppression...
...The Buenos Aires group, Gays for Civil Rights (Gays D. C.), says that it documented 331 complaints of arrest under the edicts in 1995-twice the number of complaints documented over the two-year period between September, 1992 and September, 1994...
Vol. 30 • March 1997 • No. 5
