I interviewed Antonio Medina, coordinator of Letra S, a fortnightly supplement in left-wing daily newspaper La Jornada. He, and his couple were the first couple to utilize the registration scheme, introduced into being by the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD) in 2006.
Antonio Mendina
41 years old, 19 years out of the closet, large family, very religious, but very educated. After he family, only took them a small amount of time to be OK with it. I believe strongly that the Personal is political, I began my activism at university. All my homework was about the question of homosexuality. We suffer a lot through the media. This is a big hurdle we have to change. Front covers like "maricon strangled/ homosexuals killed" in the front cover of magazines causes much pain.
I became active at uni, GUAM - they say Zapatista SubCommandante Marcos was a professor there. Very left campus, very progressive ideas. In 1996 I helped form a gay rights group - we campaigned and won a queer space. The rector was very supportive, very open. I lived in Canada for 2 years before going to GUAM, therefore I knew that unis had queer spaces. During my university time I came in contact with Letra S, and worked for them in a voluntary fashion. I joined with them , an investigation team into hate crimes. We sorted through many photos and cases of homophobic hate crimes. It was very hard. Wothout money. It was a hard job to do for ones sanity, ones mind.
In 1998, when I finished my studies, I got a contract with Letra S, after many years of volunteer work. This was the 90s, and lots of work was being done around AIDS.
I dont think in Mexico, there is really a gay strip, or gay community like there is in the West. We have small groups, but not a big community.
AIDS in the 90s and 80s was the big issue. 80% of men in Mexico who have AIDS are gay or men who have sex with men. In the 90s poor countries fought for the state to assume responsibility for medical attention - drugs became available but we did not and still do not have good medical attention. There no health for all here. The fight was around the fact that the state institutions did not want to say that yes, gay men are effected. 10 years in 1985 we had a big earthquake, and after this quaked there was a huge rise in social activism. All types of social activism, womens civil groups. AIDS came around this time to Mexico too, and so gay men fought for health care in the context of this rise of social activism.
In the 90s Patria Jiménez, the first openly lesbian candidate in Mexico was elected. Also, the 90s held the Zapatistas, they were very important. Patria's first overrinding campaign was indigenous rights with the Zapatistas. 98 was the first legislative forum LGBT. It was very good, positive But the medias of communication were terrible/ violent against LGBT. Strong homophobia in the media. 1998 was too a commission around hate crimes.
2001 we began the fight around laws of convinience within FD. The Party of Social Democracy prepared a law convinience here. It was knocked back originally. Finally, after 6 years it was passed. But with much of debate, discussion. All social actors were speaking about this issue - magistrates, universities, churches, schools. Was being explained in all places. Because this law was first in a northern state - Colima, and it was put up by the PRI who have has 71 years in power here in Mexico, the law the state PRI put up was a law from France. Finally, in 2006 they approved almost the exact law here in DF that they had in Colima.
In the 6th MArch 2006, we applied the law of convenience. - me and my partner were motivated to use this law because no-one - no couples would come forth to use the law. If no-one used the law, then the community would come under fire.
Indeed this was already happening. After two months of the law passed, no-one had come forward to use them. There began to be critisim from Orocio Franco and various media.
So me and my partner deliberated. We had, them 4 years together, sharing our lives. So we did it, and for almost one month we were in the press talking about the law, the positives and the limits. My partner is not an activist, but he assumed the responsibility. We are still fighting for marriage. I got criticism from friends and family, because it was not just for love that we did this. We may or may not stay together for the rest of our lives, but we did it because the laws needed validation, and we needed more discussion in society about our rights.
For example, my partner got very sick, very suddenly and I went to the hospital and they said he may need a transplant, urgently and can you sign this form, are you family. And I said no, I am a friend, at that stage it was very early into our relationship. But then they said, well, no, ring his family. And I only had one number, of a family member and I could not reach them. So then I told them of our relationship, and they still refused, and so I told them that I was a journalist with La Jornada, and if they did not allow me to sign, I would go public. Well, I am a journalist, I have the power to do this, I know my rights. But for others, this is not an option. This new law helps, but it is not marriage, which would have more of a social impact, so that this could not happen.
The law has limitations, The biggest is social security - that for hetrosexual couples they have the right to their partners benefits if they die/get sick/ hetrosexual couples are able to go to football games on special packages for example too, gyms etc have packages etc but we don't get that kind of recognition with this law. There is also no adoption rights.
For hetro couples who have lots of money, they can get kids through adoption. Not so for us under this law. However, the law has benefits - it is in large part symbolic - it is very important to see that we have rights. Symbolic for society. That we are informed that their exists rights. We change things little by little.
The first gay march was 1978, and now at the end of June we have a very big march/ procession. Previosly, when they started in 1999, they went to Chapultapec to the Benito Juarez memorial because he was president who fought hard for the separation of church and state. The rally at Chapultepec went to the Benito Juarez memorial to honor his role. Then the marches grew to 20,000 to 30,000 people and we moved and went to the Zocolo which is in the center of town, and of course very symbolic. We entered and then, after the march increased in numbers. Not just gay people, their familes, aunties. People from unions, universities UNAM, Zapatistas.
The Zapatistas were important SCMArcos mentioned the rights of LGBT people very early on in the life of the Zapatistas. Companies were interested in coming - ABSOLUTE (vodka) for example, beer companies and the like. Little by little, they made their way into the marches. They are very expensive to organise. Has a negative impact, yes, but expensive, so accepted the money. 100,000 people at the last two rallies participated. There are now fights between groups as to who will march at the front.
70s the fight was against police and general repression.
80s question of AIDS and health care
90s marriage rights - sexual education campaigns in schools and society.
La Jornada and Letra S
1st year of La Jornada was 1994, just before the 1985 earthquake. Left leaders were the founders. Communist Party in the 70s and 80s fought hard the social fight and then founded LJ. Also joining it were left intellectuals and uni professors. When it was founded HIV hit Mexico. Letra S began 10 years later, in 1994. Originally it began in a government space, in a government newspaper called the 'National' which was very official, very government. But it was also very limited, because its circulation was low, not many people read it. In 1998 Letra S joined LJ, which was a good move because LJ has a higher circulatin, so more people read Letra S now. Much better impact. 100,000 LJ sold every day in Mexico. Letra S is also an non-government organisation, that works on issues of sexuality, AIDS, as well as a sumplement 14 years old. Letra S takes up political themes, critical of public politics, critical of the health government institutions, education department,
development department. Very critical overall. A style of journalism that is
different from the rest, there are very few good issues raised in other publications. A social vision, very different.
Other issues in Mexico is that transgendered people need to be able to change their identity - they need to have operations.
Censure, there is no self-censorship but well, in some spaces yes. For example, 2003 those in the military with AIDS, still the military will not talk about it. In Mexico you cannot criticize the Virgin Guadalope, well, with the military, its like the same. You cant question them. They have power, they can make you disappear, so yea, people are afraid to question them. Not all the media, thanks to our push and others homsexuals in the media, we wrote about it. Then, practically all the press LGBT wrote about it. It was very good. Also, the theme of youth homosexuality because of the charge of pedophilia. There are specialists who have investigated this - but we are not writing about it because they are are afraid they will lose their jobs and the like. Also, erectile dysfunction between gay men is not reported, but it is common. Those men who are 'tops' that is they do the penetrating, they are penetrating or tops have problems with erectile dysfunction.
There is no law in Mexico that would enable the LGBT community to stop lies about condoms not causing lies. Like the lies that Pope Benedict promotes. They are very dangerous. There is no such laws here, and they would be good.
There are two grand private companies that dominate the press here in Mexico. Before the elections here in July, it is not good to campaign around marriage law. Why? Because they thing of a lay like marriage is that it is a Federal law, and we need to utilise these elections to win more deputies. The PRD, need to be strong federally for us to pass such a law, Socially, homosexual marriage is a great necesity. There are better times for us to push for this law. We will use up a time that is not good, if we push it before the elections.
Holland were vanguardists in this regard. They passed it in 1989, they advanced on abortion as well.
LGBT oppression is not only social but it is cultural, it is within peoples thoughts, internalized. Not only outside repression. Therefore, it is important to have marriage as a symbol. That we have the same rights as hetrosexual couples.
Transgender oppression for LGB is about gender, and there is a lot of oppression within trans people within the LGBT community in Mexico. It is part of the human condition. It is part of the folklore of the African American communities, the peasant communitys, and in our communtiy there is violence. I have transexual friends, and we are walking, and some other people I know, other friends, will not come and greet me if they see me with transgender friends. This is part of out internalised homophobia/transphobia - attacking someone who is different to ourselves. Discriminatory, a question of status as well, Mexico history of classification - of looking down at those in a lower class conquistadors, criolle, etc etc.
Post the war of 1910, the revolutionary democratic government demanded homosexiuals be given specific identification, for example.
On our processions, festivals, nightclubs. They are a celebration of nudity. Meat of nudity. They are a result of our oppression that we have suffered for so long. The pagan carnival was a fertility carnival, tied closely with sex, for rain, sun, so that the crops would grow and life would continue. That is the history of carnivals. So our festivals now are this, but they are also a protest against hate and against the ideas of the Catholic church. They are to repudiate our repressor.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Patria Jiménez - Latin America's first lesbian deputy
I interviewed this activist. Will get the full interview up on the blog soon, but here is a brief explanation of her work.
In 1997, Jiménez made history by being elected the first openly lesbian candidate in Mexico. Representing the Workers Revolutionary Party (PRT) which was in an alliance with the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) Jiménez was also the first lesbian candidate to be elected in Latin America. She is standing again within Salvemos México (Save Mexico) for Mexico’s upcoming July federal elections.
I want to share an interview conducted by a skilled writer, who managed to get more of the personal components of her life. I think every queer person needs to read this interview. And all those who want to know what we go through.
http://www.speaktruth.org/defend/profiles/profile_45.asp
Here is some of the best bits of her responses
'And I will look back and realize the true meanings of many things, like courage. Courage is when, in Chiapas, you ask a general to remove his troops from a community because they are entering houses at night, frightening people. You have to talk to that general, to confront someone with weapons and power, to overcome your timidity and fear. Today they tell me I’m going to Chiapas, to lead the people on a march into the community of La Realidad. When we get to the roadblock, there will be armed paramilitaries. These are the most risky situations: entering communities in which my truck is surrounded by paramilitaries threatening to burn it, saying that they will kill us. It used to make me afraid, but it doesn’t any more. Because I am never alone. Even when people ask me to go in front, to confront the troops or the paramilitaries, they come with me, so we’re a group.'
My fear disappears when I begin to speak in these situations, without raising my voice. I just try to explain to people what’s going on. I’m afraid inside, but calm outside. It’s only when I get home that I react. The morning after, I wake up and say, "What did I do?" That could be brave. I don’t know. I’m not someone who takes risks. Others have been beaten up, but this has not happened to me. If that happens to me some day, it will be part of the work. I just hope they don’t hurt me too badly.
But I take courage by realizing that here is an opening, and we have been able to move forward on difficult cases. I’ve gotten a reputation of being a good advocate. But it works because there is openness on the part of the other side. They are small cases, but they are very important, because they have to do with people’s lives—someone in jail, rape victims, a pregnant woman, a person kicked out of work after twenty-five years. Very small cases, but it’s their lives. And it’s so worth fighting for.'
Incredible!!
In 1997, Jiménez made history by being elected the first openly lesbian candidate in Mexico. Representing the Workers Revolutionary Party (PRT) which was in an alliance with the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) Jiménez was also the first lesbian candidate to be elected in Latin America. She is standing again within Salvemos México (Save Mexico) for Mexico’s upcoming July federal elections.
I want to share an interview conducted by a skilled writer, who managed to get more of the personal components of her life. I think every queer person needs to read this interview. And all those who want to know what we go through.
http://www.speaktruth.org/defend/profiles/profile_45.asp
Here is some of the best bits of her responses
'And I will look back and realize the true meanings of many things, like courage. Courage is when, in Chiapas, you ask a general to remove his troops from a community because they are entering houses at night, frightening people. You have to talk to that general, to confront someone with weapons and power, to overcome your timidity and fear. Today they tell me I’m going to Chiapas, to lead the people on a march into the community of La Realidad. When we get to the roadblock, there will be armed paramilitaries. These are the most risky situations: entering communities in which my truck is surrounded by paramilitaries threatening to burn it, saying that they will kill us. It used to make me afraid, but it doesn’t any more. Because I am never alone. Even when people ask me to go in front, to confront the troops or the paramilitaries, they come with me, so we’re a group.'
My fear disappears when I begin to speak in these situations, without raising my voice. I just try to explain to people what’s going on. I’m afraid inside, but calm outside. It’s only when I get home that I react. The morning after, I wake up and say, "What did I do?" That could be brave. I don’t know. I’m not someone who takes risks. Others have been beaten up, but this has not happened to me. If that happens to me some day, it will be part of the work. I just hope they don’t hurt me too badly.
But I take courage by realizing that here is an opening, and we have been able to move forward on difficult cases. I’ve gotten a reputation of being a good advocate. But it works because there is openness on the part of the other side. They are small cases, but they are very important, because they have to do with people’s lives—someone in jail, rape victims, a pregnant woman, a person kicked out of work after twenty-five years. Very small cases, but it’s their lives. And it’s so worth fighting for.'
Incredible!!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Eduardo Galeano - The Devil Is a Homosexual
La Jornada has a fortnightly sexuality lift out that this week featured a double spread about intersexuality. http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/05/07/ls-cara.html
This edition also featured a 'chapter' from Eduardo Galeno's new book 'Espejos' / Mirrors. It's called 'The Devil is a Homosexual' and it went something like this.
'Excluding the reign of the Aztecs and the Incas, the homosexuals were free in America. The Spanish conqueror Vasco Núnez de Balboa hurled starving dogs to the Indians showing this abnormality with total normality. He believed homosexuality was contagious. Five centuries after, I listened to Archbishop of Montevideo say the same thing.
The historian Richard Nixon knew that this vice was fatal for civilization. Nixon "You know what happened to the Greeks? Homosexuality destroyed them! For sure Aristotle was a homo. Everyone knows it. And also Socrates. And you know that is what happened with the Romans?"
The civilized Adolf Hitler had taken drastic measures to save Germany from this danger. The degenerates guilty of this perverse crime against nature were obliged to wear a pink triangle. How many died in the concentration camps? They do not know. In the year of 2001, the German government resolved to rectify the exclusion of homosexuality among the holocaust victims.
More than half a century passed away before there was a correction of this omission.
Saffo: continued Galeano,
Little is known of Saffo.
They say she was born 2,600 years ago in the island of lesbos, and that because of her they gave the name lesbians.
They say she married, had one boy child that she threw off a cliff because a sailor did not give her due attention. They say she was slight and ugly. Who knows.
The machos do not take well that women prefer other women, instead of succumbing to our irresistible charms.
In the year 1703 the Catholic Church, bastion of male power, sent all the books of Saffo to the fire. Some poems, only some, have been salvaged.
Leonardo: In his 20th year, the guards of public morale, the watchmen of the night, they plucked Leonardo from the workshop of teacher Verrocchio and they hurled him into jail.
Two months there, without sleep, without breath, terrorized by the threat of the stake. The price of homosexuality was fire and one anonymous denunciation would have the accused within it.
Leonardo was absolved for lack of evidence and he returned to to his life.
And he painted expert works, almost all unfinished, that in the history of art, excelled.
Salvemos Mexico
Obrador, Mexico's legitimate president, is in election mode. Elections are July 5th, and there are notices on the trains here in DF, asking people to think seriously about their choice.
The PRD, has come under much criticism by people in general, for being corrupt, and for not offering a significant alternative to the PRI, PAN pro-corporate, conservative duopoly.
They are the 'least worst choice' many say.
Obrador has been moving away from the PRD. His television ads don't have him mention the PRD, but mention PT and Convergencia, both left parties that are in an electoral alliance with the PRD. This has angered José Ortega, the conservative PRD president. However, without Obrador, the PRD would be without an electoral chance. So there have been some sharpish words in La Jornada, but nothing much more.
The other move that Obrador has made has been to set up 'Salvamos México', a coalition between Convergencia, PT and remnants/ members of PRT. This coalition, from what I have been able to gather has electoral registration in its own right. This would be in direct competition with the PRD.
Good developments on the reshaping of a left leadership that will be able to make advances in the struggle.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Swine Flu in Mexico
This is an article Lauren Carol Haris and myself wrote about swine flu in Mexico.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/793/40818
Mexico: Swine flu, health and profits
Rachel Evans & Lauren Carroll Harris, Mexico City
2 May 2009
Streets that bustled only two weeks ago are eerily quiet.
School playgrounds and university lecture halls are deserted. Museums, cinemas, libraries and many restaurants are shuttered.
And most people — from children playing in the streets to workers going about their business — are wearing the ubiquitous blue surgical masks.
Yet another international health emergency has emerged: swine influenza.
Type A H121 influenza, swine flu, resists human immunity, has no vaccine, and sprouted in an underdeveloped country with struggling health services.
Now that international air travel allows people to cross the world in a matter of hours, it seems that pigs really can fly: countries as far apart as Peru, New Zealand, Austria and the US have reported cases of swine flu.
Although swine flu is undoubtedly a real danger, it can be prevented when simple protective measures are taken. It can be adequately treated with antivirals such as Tamiflu when treated within the 48 hours of infection.
This has not stopped the Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who won the 2006 elections through massive voter fraud, from using the outbreak to decree authoritarian laws. Health authorities have been granted emergency powers to detain any person suspected of being infected with swine flu. Authorities also have the right to enter any shop or home.
This occurs in a context of already increased militarisation. The military is already mobilised on the streets in the name of the “war on drugs”. This latest move appears to be taking advantage of the swine flu outbreak to extend state powers.
The media are whipping up a hysterical frenzy over swine flu. Yet, there is no mention of the World Health Organisation estimate of the between 250,000-500,000 people who die each year from seasonal influenza.
The outbreak has highlighted the importance of strong state health systems and government responses.
The real problem facing Mexico is not an uncontrollable epidemic, but that its health system, run down by governments following neoliberal prescriptions set out in the US-enforced North America Free Trade Agreement, risks making the situation much worse than it needs to be.
This latest health emergency points to the need for well-maintained public health systems, global access to generic drugs, proper regulation, infrastructure for surveillance of public health issues, food industries and livestock diseases.
The Third World, with its high-density populations, dilapidated health-care systems, weakened or non-existent social services and poor populaces, is acutely vulnerable to wide-scale health problems. It will suffer more from this outbreak.
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund actually mandated the privatisation of many Third World countries´ health systems as part of structural adjustment programs. Implementing such programs are a condition for poor countries receiving needed loans.
The impact of swine flu has already impacted on the lives of Mexico’s people, half of whom live in poverty. The outbreak has diminished work for the millions of people in Mexico City’s informal sector , who rely on income from street stalls.
The AFP said on April 30 that flu-related closures are costing Mexico US$57 million per day.
The swine flu outbreak has also drawn attention to the corporate practices of agricultural and pharmaceutical industries, which routinely place business over health.
The pharmaceutical industry’s stranglehold on global health prevents swift and efficient measures from being taken in the event of health crises. Third World governments are forced to rely on pharmaceutical companies to supply medicines. The needed prescription flu treatment Tamiflu is produced by the Roche corporation.
Already, giant drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline’s stock prices have increased by 8% since the announcement of the swine flu outbreak.
Health care is out of our control. Giant drug manufacturers profit from privatised health systems that prevent patented drugs from being distributed en masse in generic formats to those who need them.
A profound health crisis already exists in the world. This is not a screaming headlines and surgical masks- type crisis. It is largely silent.
For the 3 billion people who live on less than $2 per day, decent health care is a distant dream.
Only when the “free market” approach to health is abandoned and life-saving drugs are wrangled from the corporations can a comprehensive approach to health care and pandemic prevention be adopted.
From: International News, Green Left Weekly issue #793 6 May 2009.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/793/40818
Mexico: Swine flu, health and profits
Rachel Evans & Lauren Carroll Harris, Mexico City
2 May 2009
Streets that bustled only two weeks ago are eerily quiet.
School playgrounds and university lecture halls are deserted. Museums, cinemas, libraries and many restaurants are shuttered.
And most people — from children playing in the streets to workers going about their business — are wearing the ubiquitous blue surgical masks.
Yet another international health emergency has emerged: swine influenza.
Type A H121 influenza, swine flu, resists human immunity, has no vaccine, and sprouted in an underdeveloped country with struggling health services.
Now that international air travel allows people to cross the world in a matter of hours, it seems that pigs really can fly: countries as far apart as Peru, New Zealand, Austria and the US have reported cases of swine flu.
Although swine flu is undoubtedly a real danger, it can be prevented when simple protective measures are taken. It can be adequately treated with antivirals such as Tamiflu when treated within the 48 hours of infection.
This has not stopped the Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who won the 2006 elections through massive voter fraud, from using the outbreak to decree authoritarian laws. Health authorities have been granted emergency powers to detain any person suspected of being infected with swine flu. Authorities also have the right to enter any shop or home.
This occurs in a context of already increased militarisation. The military is already mobilised on the streets in the name of the “war on drugs”. This latest move appears to be taking advantage of the swine flu outbreak to extend state powers.
The media are whipping up a hysterical frenzy over swine flu. Yet, there is no mention of the World Health Organisation estimate of the between 250,000-500,000 people who die each year from seasonal influenza.
The outbreak has highlighted the importance of strong state health systems and government responses.
The real problem facing Mexico is not an uncontrollable epidemic, but that its health system, run down by governments following neoliberal prescriptions set out in the US-enforced North America Free Trade Agreement, risks making the situation much worse than it needs to be.
This latest health emergency points to the need for well-maintained public health systems, global access to generic drugs, proper regulation, infrastructure for surveillance of public health issues, food industries and livestock diseases.
The Third World, with its high-density populations, dilapidated health-care systems, weakened or non-existent social services and poor populaces, is acutely vulnerable to wide-scale health problems. It will suffer more from this outbreak.
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund actually mandated the privatisation of many Third World countries´ health systems as part of structural adjustment programs. Implementing such programs are a condition for poor countries receiving needed loans.
The impact of swine flu has already impacted on the lives of Mexico’s people, half of whom live in poverty. The outbreak has diminished work for the millions of people in Mexico City’s informal sector , who rely on income from street stalls.
The AFP said on April 30 that flu-related closures are costing Mexico US$57 million per day.
The swine flu outbreak has also drawn attention to the corporate practices of agricultural and pharmaceutical industries, which routinely place business over health.
The pharmaceutical industry’s stranglehold on global health prevents swift and efficient measures from being taken in the event of health crises. Third World governments are forced to rely on pharmaceutical companies to supply medicines. The needed prescription flu treatment Tamiflu is produced by the Roche corporation.
Already, giant drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline’s stock prices have increased by 8% since the announcement of the swine flu outbreak.
Health care is out of our control. Giant drug manufacturers profit from privatised health systems that prevent patented drugs from being distributed en masse in generic formats to those who need them.
A profound health crisis already exists in the world. This is not a screaming headlines and surgical masks- type crisis. It is largely silent.
For the 3 billion people who live on less than $2 per day, decent health care is a distant dream.
Only when the “free market” approach to health is abandoned and life-saving drugs are wrangled from the corporations can a comprehensive approach to health care and pandemic prevention be adopted.
From: International News, Green Left Weekly issue #793 6 May 2009.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Musings on Homophobia
This blog is appearing to be a tad myopic in its focus.
In large part, due to the fact I am doing an assignment on homophobia in Mexico.
As a result, my brain is focusing. Here is a little more.
I think there are six main manifestations of homophobia within a country. I have listed them here, they will not follow any order of importance.
1) Violence towards gays, lesbians and transgender people (LGBTI) - ‘hate crimes’ and police harassment as well as police inaction on hate-crimes.
2) Laws - anti-homosexual mentions within legal codes, lack of legal equality - marriage/ civil unions/ no anti-discrimination laws, lack of affirmative action
3) Lack of safe-sex education that includes same-sex loving and relationships. Lack of readily available contraception. Prevalence of of HIV/ STI’s within the LGBTI community that is not enacted upon by the government. Lack of free health care
4) Sacking of lesbians, gays, transgender people from work. Workplace discrimination
5) No separation of church and state, church’s interference in politics
6) Government leaders in powerful public positions making homophobic statements
In large part, due to the fact I am doing an assignment on homophobia in Mexico.
As a result, my brain is focusing. Here is a little more.
I think there are six main manifestations of homophobia within a country. I have listed them here, they will not follow any order of importance.
1) Violence towards gays, lesbians and transgender people (LGBTI) - ‘hate crimes’ and police harassment as well as police inaction on hate-crimes.
2) Laws - anti-homosexual mentions within legal codes, lack of legal equality - marriage/ civil unions/ no anti-discrimination laws, lack of affirmative action
3) Lack of safe-sex education that includes same-sex loving and relationships. Lack of readily available contraception. Prevalence of of HIV/ STI’s within the LGBTI community that is not enacted upon by the government. Lack of free health care
4) Sacking of lesbians, gays, transgender people from work. Workplace discrimination
5) No separation of church and state, church’s interference in politics
6) Government leaders in powerful public positions making homophobic statements
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Mexican Lesbian Rally Document
Central Document – Pronouncements and Demands of the 4th Lesbian March,
Organising Committee (COMLa) of the 4th Lesbian March, Mexico 2009,
21st March, 3pm within the Zocalo.
Us, lesbian feminists members of the COMAL, we meet one more time, to take to the streets about the space visible for them to meet us, understand us, and reclaim publicly the rights that historically, have been denied to us.
The patriarchal and capitalist system continues with voraciousness the war and deprivation of life in both. By means of its ideological apparatus of the state, segregate and divide the population imposing their neo-liberal ideas conservative and fascist, obligating them to live submitted and repressed and exploited, under economic systems that only generate ecological devastation, about the population, extreme poverty and misery void of possibilities of a full life full of dignity, continuing the untenable capitalist system.
The lesbians have disobeyed the mandatory heterosexual obligation according to the capitalist patriarchal system that has served to make us invisible and isolate us until we ignore our sexual autonomy. For it, our organised presence in the streets is an act of visibility more strong in front of the patriarchal ideology, already that we demolish the prejudices, the sexism, the misogyny and the lesbian-fobia manifested publicly in the love between women.
The Lesbian march maintains the spirit that was within its origins our social movement, particularly from feminists and lesbian feminists, and our just reclaiming for the liberty maternal and voluntary against the violence towards women, for the free self-determination, sexual liberty – demands that in no manner have been resolved, repression against us that has not diminished, on the contrary, it has intensified, already that the discussion of that has of the pseudo-inclusion and equality creates a fictious reality that confuses and repeats the segregation, for to maintain one more time the practice of double discrimination, redressed for now with a guise of gender equality forcing us to be where all is false and a lie, it is an imposition and continues to be intensified already that the discussion of the pseudo-inclusion of the feminine body to continue to fortify that woman are equal to men.
We are continuing to feed the movement for women and we push the lesbian-feminist to be our guide political for our movement, reclaiming that the personal is political and the road to return to is feminism for the women and the women for feminism.
We question and criticize the commercialization of the what is to be “gay” already that with their voracious consumerist practice, alienate and confuses the lesbian community presented with the option of development of our new sexuality with shame, a continuation of the sexual roles and stereotypes of gender, consumption of alcohol and commercial drugs, sexual commercialization, between these and other factors, that have generated the demobilization, the lack of consciousness, the propagation of individualism and consumerism that has translated into juicy profits for the repressed groups oligarchs that, in , collusion with the false leaders have translated betrayed the first principals that we gave to the marches and the our movement of lesbians and the sexual rights movement in Mexico.
This movement of Lesbian Feminists, does not intend to accommodate, adapt nor integrate to the patriarchal, capitalist system, out proposal is another – it is behind feminism of its coherence, of its ethic, of the revolution liberation of the women that we intend a profound world-wide transformation without wars or violence.
We are fighting because the lesbians, the women and the people of México, we will be able to live without fear, exercising with dignity our rights to take to the streets and demand from the Mexican state guarantees the absolute respect and unquestionably, the freedom of elections, our civil rights and individual freedoms.
In Each Kiss, A Revolution
Pronouncements
The PAN led government is the primary enemy of the Mexican people, of them we only received fraud, robbery, intolerance, insecurity, restrictions on human rights and poverty. It is clear that the people, we are not able to win the claim: resign
They do not respect human rights in Mexico evidenced by the repression against activists and the social movements we demand respect our lives and peaceful rallies. No more criminalization of the social movements!
Enoe Uranga (present candidate to deputy) does NOT represent us, she does not have our votes.
Demands
The life of the lesbians is not able to be defined by the state like a public policy. The state, only should guarantee the human rights, respecting our public and private life.
The Political Constitution of Mexico, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Convention about the Elimination of All the forms of Discrimination Against Women should be applied and respected by local and federal governments without restrictions or conditions. We demand the decriminalization of abortion in all the territories Mexican as well as free access to anti-contraceptive methods!
To guarantee the health of women we demand the creation of a National Advice of the Fight against and Prevention of Breast Cancer and Uterus Cancer, with branches in the 31 states.
The Society of Convenience is not any breakthrough, it is a record of the people in this country who are treated in a discriminatory manner, for this we demand complete rights on par with heterosexual people, the right to marry, access to the pension and social security of the same sex couples, to acquire Mexican nationality in the case of bi-national couples, adoption and freedom to have children and educate our children.
We demand the respect to the secular education, that begins in the first years of primary school with openness and unbiased information in the books about abortion, methods of anti-contraceptives no discrimination about sex, lesbian sexuality and homosexual sexuality so that people live in freedom and can take responsibility for their sexuality.
To the D.F Government
We demand the urgent application, based on the Law of Access to Women to a Life Free of Violence, from the Affirmative Action in favor of the female and lesbian population, that until now, has not been realized and that remains as a dead letter.
The access to all systems of health, assisted reproduction for women and lesbians that whom that they ask for.
The modification of the specific Manual procedures in prisons, in terms of guaranteeing lesbian women in prison access to intimate visits with her partner, in the same way that heterosexual couples exercise this right. We demand the prompt implementation of sensitivity in al the instances of government and to the personal of the social services of health that contain clear information respecting lesbians and their particular health needs.
Recognition of the specificity of the lesbian sector already that attend to the gay men and transgender, it is not attending to lesbian women.
Real sanctions administrative against the family judges who, making use of their discretional faculties, they take lesbian sexual orientation as reason to take guardianship and custodianship of our children, based on prejudicial sexist discrimination, violating the Constitution, the international treatment and local and federal laws that prohibit discrimination.
We demand spaces in public transport that are exclusively to guard the security of the women to be guarded and limited strictly only to women, already that there is no control about this and the Mexican city-dwellers that thy have faced harassment in the everyday from all types of men including the old men and disabled men, already that these people have not learnt still that women are not objects.
We demand the immediate application of the Diagnostic for the Human Rights for the D.F realized in April 2008, and that they apply the recommendations of the Commission of Human Rights within DF in favor of lesbians.
Organising Committee (COMLa) of the 4th Lesbian March, Mexico 2009,
21st March, 3pm within the Zocalo.
Us, lesbian feminists members of the COMAL, we meet one more time, to take to the streets about the space visible for them to meet us, understand us, and reclaim publicly the rights that historically, have been denied to us.
The patriarchal and capitalist system continues with voraciousness the war and deprivation of life in both. By means of its ideological apparatus of the state, segregate and divide the population imposing their neo-liberal ideas conservative and fascist, obligating them to live submitted and repressed and exploited, under economic systems that only generate ecological devastation, about the population, extreme poverty and misery void of possibilities of a full life full of dignity, continuing the untenable capitalist system.
The lesbians have disobeyed the mandatory heterosexual obligation according to the capitalist patriarchal system that has served to make us invisible and isolate us until we ignore our sexual autonomy. For it, our organised presence in the streets is an act of visibility more strong in front of the patriarchal ideology, already that we demolish the prejudices, the sexism, the misogyny and the lesbian-fobia manifested publicly in the love between women.
The Lesbian march maintains the spirit that was within its origins our social movement, particularly from feminists and lesbian feminists, and our just reclaiming for the liberty maternal and voluntary against the violence towards women, for the free self-determination, sexual liberty – demands that in no manner have been resolved, repression against us that has not diminished, on the contrary, it has intensified, already that the discussion of that has of the pseudo-inclusion and equality creates a fictious reality that confuses and repeats the segregation, for to maintain one more time the practice of double discrimination, redressed for now with a guise of gender equality forcing us to be where all is false and a lie, it is an imposition and continues to be intensified already that the discussion of the pseudo-inclusion of the feminine body to continue to fortify that woman are equal to men.
We are continuing to feed the movement for women and we push the lesbian-feminist to be our guide political for our movement, reclaiming that the personal is political and the road to return to is feminism for the women and the women for feminism.
We question and criticize the commercialization of the what is to be “gay” already that with their voracious consumerist practice, alienate and confuses the lesbian community presented with the option of development of our new sexuality with shame, a continuation of the sexual roles and stereotypes of gender, consumption of alcohol and commercial drugs, sexual commercialization, between these and other factors, that have generated the demobilization, the lack of consciousness, the propagation of individualism and consumerism that has translated into juicy profits for the repressed groups oligarchs that, in , collusion with the false leaders have translated betrayed the first principals that we gave to the marches and the our movement of lesbians and the sexual rights movement in Mexico.
This movement of Lesbian Feminists, does not intend to accommodate, adapt nor integrate to the patriarchal, capitalist system, out proposal is another – it is behind feminism of its coherence, of its ethic, of the revolution liberation of the women that we intend a profound world-wide transformation without wars or violence.
We are fighting because the lesbians, the women and the people of México, we will be able to live without fear, exercising with dignity our rights to take to the streets and demand from the Mexican state guarantees the absolute respect and unquestionably, the freedom of elections, our civil rights and individual freedoms.
In Each Kiss, A Revolution
Pronouncements
The PAN led government is the primary enemy of the Mexican people, of them we only received fraud, robbery, intolerance, insecurity, restrictions on human rights and poverty. It is clear that the people, we are not able to win the claim: resign
They do not respect human rights in Mexico evidenced by the repression against activists and the social movements we demand respect our lives and peaceful rallies. No more criminalization of the social movements!
Enoe Uranga (present candidate to deputy) does NOT represent us, she does not have our votes.
Demands
The life of the lesbians is not able to be defined by the state like a public policy. The state, only should guarantee the human rights, respecting our public and private life.
The Political Constitution of Mexico, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Convention about the Elimination of All the forms of Discrimination Against Women should be applied and respected by local and federal governments without restrictions or conditions. We demand the decriminalization of abortion in all the territories Mexican as well as free access to anti-contraceptive methods!
To guarantee the health of women we demand the creation of a National Advice of the Fight against and Prevention of Breast Cancer and Uterus Cancer, with branches in the 31 states.
The Society of Convenience is not any breakthrough, it is a record of the people in this country who are treated in a discriminatory manner, for this we demand complete rights on par with heterosexual people, the right to marry, access to the pension and social security of the same sex couples, to acquire Mexican nationality in the case of bi-national couples, adoption and freedom to have children and educate our children.
We demand the respect to the secular education, that begins in the first years of primary school with openness and unbiased information in the books about abortion, methods of anti-contraceptives no discrimination about sex, lesbian sexuality and homosexual sexuality so that people live in freedom and can take responsibility for their sexuality.
To the D.F Government
We demand the urgent application, based on the Law of Access to Women to a Life Free of Violence, from the Affirmative Action in favor of the female and lesbian population, that until now, has not been realized and that remains as a dead letter.
The access to all systems of health, assisted reproduction for women and lesbians that whom that they ask for.
The modification of the specific Manual procedures in prisons, in terms of guaranteeing lesbian women in prison access to intimate visits with her partner, in the same way that heterosexual couples exercise this right. We demand the prompt implementation of sensitivity in al the instances of government and to the personal of the social services of health that contain clear information respecting lesbians and their particular health needs.
Recognition of the specificity of the lesbian sector already that attend to the gay men and transgender, it is not attending to lesbian women.
Real sanctions administrative against the family judges who, making use of their discretional faculties, they take lesbian sexual orientation as reason to take guardianship and custodianship of our children, based on prejudicial sexist discrimination, violating the Constitution, the international treatment and local and federal laws that prohibit discrimination.
We demand spaces in public transport that are exclusively to guard the security of the women to be guarded and limited strictly only to women, already that there is no control about this and the Mexican city-dwellers that thy have faced harassment in the everyday from all types of men including the old men and disabled men, already that these people have not learnt still that women are not objects.
We demand the immediate application of the Diagnostic for the Human Rights for the D.F realized in April 2008, and that they apply the recommendations of the Commission of Human Rights within DF in favor of lesbians.
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