translated from Spanish: Stonewall, the transvestite bravery and the night when diversity became a flag

Every June 28 since 1969 international LGBTQI Pride Day is commemorated and celebrated after police forces storm Stonewall bowling (New York, United States) and the gay resistance will mark a before and after in the history of this col ective. While it is not now, fifty years ago being gay, lesbian, transvestite or trans in New York was not easy and the police, as is the case today with trans people, discriminated, violent and took advantage of that situation of marginality caused by a state that persecuted and punished the collective. The place where the first multicolored mass rebellion happened was Stonewall, but it was not the only place where police forces carried out raids in which they seized alcohol and took (if they did not receive coimas to avoid it) people imprisoned for their sexual orientation or by being dressed and dressed in clothing of the opposite sex. That morning something was brewed and those who were inside the bowling alley and then outside gathered together and protested these injustices and violence already fed up with them. The outcome of the story is well represented in several films about what happened that night, but what followed that rebellion endures today in the civil rights history of the LGBTQI community. 

Alejandro Modarelli, writer, journalist and gay activist. | Photo: Twitter.

To understand a little bit what this date means and why it is hinged, Filo.News spoke with the writer, journalist, contributor to the supplement I’m from Page 12 and member of the organization Gays for Civil Rights (Gays DC) during the 1990s, Aleja Modarelli. Fucking lesbians, unides and organizations 

March for Rights for Diversity, Photo: Twitter.

“The Stonewall riots consisted of a series of spontaneous demonstrations in protest against a police raid that took place in the early morning of 28 June 1969. It was the first time that, in the face of a police razi in New York City, there was a massive spontaneous demonstration. Razzias were common as the police were used to enter that bar as in so many other bars to gather coimas and take people in jail”, explains Modarelli.Si well all the dissents and people with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual Trans people were (and continue to be) the most marginalized, so it’s no surprise that they were the ones who put themselves at the forefront of this revolution that then changed history. “That night it was the transvestites who initiated the revolt. Police were suddenly also surrounded by students and other social groups who had joined the resistance. Until that point there was still no united LGBTQI collective or any movement that brought together or organized our community, so the spontaneity of that night was a great triumph. It is said that from that date on, the word “gay” was taken as a flag,” says the specialist and militant.” That night was born the conception, the idea of a movement, of a community that gathers and claims for the freedom of expression of our bodies, desires and tastes. Homosexual liberation was the last stage of a whole process that had broken into California with feminism and finally, with the emergence of the LGBTI collective. What is interesting is to note that this struggle had as its face, principle and leaders of resistance to trans people”, stresses Modarelli.

Carlos Luis Jáuregui, LGBTQI activist, first president of the Argentine Homosexual Community and founder of Gays for Civil Rights. Photo: Wikipedia

This date is important and is celebrated around the planet every June 28, but in our country the Pride March happens on the first weekend of November. Why? “On the one hand because on that date the first gay group was created in Argentina, but also and mainly, because in June it is very cold and in 1992, when we started marching, there were many people living with HIV AIDS and the extreme cold produced consequences in the c I used to lower the defenses. A lot of people got pneumonia and it was a very tremendous time because we had wondered if next year we’d be able to meet again. In fact, Carlos Jauregui (militant and icon of the gay civil rights struggle in Argentina) made his last march with great difficulty. It was in June 1996 and Carlos died in August,” the journalist is nostalgic. That’s right. The cold, the 90s and AIDS were a very bad combination and then successive meetings to coordinate the marches determined that that iconic day was during a much more benevolent climate for the sores. The beginning

One of the first gay community marches in our country. | Photo: Twitter.

Aeljandro Modarelli is, in addition to being a writer and journalist specializing in diversity, one of the first gays to march and fight alongside Carlos Jauregui and many others for the rights of this collective. “In June 1992, we coordinated the first Pride March. In 1991, there was legal recognition by the Menem government and the Argentine homosexual community was granted legal status. With some colleagues we had founded the association called ‘Gays for Civil Rights’ and there we began to meet with lesbians and trans people, who had begun to become aware. It was not very easy, there was a lot of resistance to incorporating them because we did not yet even have a very political view of the importance of the trans collective today. Carlos Jaureguí was the first to say “You have to have a space of your own” and from there they did,” explains Alejandro.La first march was not so festive and was far from being crowded. “We were between fifty and a hundred people,” the reporter recalls: “We gathered at our organization’s headquarters and walked down Paraná Street. I remember The Avenida de Mayo was cut off and we were surprised. We march around singing “Respect, respect, respect that walk, gays and lesbians on the streets of Argentina”. It was very exciting,” he recalls. As they advanced along the avenue that connects the Government House with the National Congress, the surprise was greater because in addition to the cut they met television cameras in the Plaza de los 2 Congresos. “When we arrived at the square, we saw a series of flashes and the cameras were there. We thought the repercussions were incredible. We were squeaking, until we suddenly noticed that all this move was because it was being installed for the first time what would be for years the famous white carp of the masters. When they saw a bunch of crazy and transvestite appear, the cameras turned to nosotres and we made headlines. We inadvertently stole a camera from the poor teachers who were fighting for rights as important as ours,” adds the writer. 

The white tent was one of the most extensive state education protests of the decade, lasting from 1997 to 1999. | Photo: Wikipedia.

Pride, freedom, bread and traVajo

Third march against transfemicides and transvestites. | Photo: Twitter.

Activist Diana Sacayán was murdered on October 11, 2015. From 2016 until now, every June 28s the march is held against transfemicides and transvestites. The rise and invisibilization of these hate crimes are the cruellest expression of a sexist society that assaults on these historically marginalized identities and which have, as a result of an absent and murderous state, a life expectancy of 35 years. It’s no coincidence that those who stepped forward that morning in New York were transvestites and trans people. Nor that this march takes place on International Pride Day. “In addition to vitiating crimes, it is also a way of remembering those early resistances and that rebellion against Stomweell’s repressive forces,” Alexander says. While the march is picked up by the urgent call for state policies to protect the community, it is also claimed that the Diana Sacayan Quota Act is being complied with at the national level. This rule obliges the State to hire at least 1% of trans persons.  

“After the crime of Diana Sacayán, which was a case that transcended the borders of Argentina, for the first time there is talk of transfemicide. For the first time the murder figure was added the aggravating offence of hatred for sexual orientation and gender identity. From that moment and in the face of the enormous impact on the media, these crimes are becoming visibility and begin to be accounted for,” Modarelli says.” That this march happens on this date is a way to commemorate that 1969 but at the same time give it an imprint that has to do precisely with the increase of these crimes. It also serves to give more and more importance to trans people. Most trans still have to survive and work in often dramatic conditions. They are the most disadvantaged and violated and that is why we must support and accompany that struggle and that march”, he concludes. 

Original source in Spanish

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