The Lavender Tide: LGBTQ Activism in Neoliberal Argentina

136 Pages·2014·1.75 MB·English

by  Andrew Shaffer

The University of San Francisco
USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library |
Geschke Center
Master's Theses Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects
Winter 12-14-2012
The Lavender Tide: LGBTQ Activism in
Neoliberal Argentina
Andrew Shaffer
[email protected]
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Part of theLesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons
Recommended Citation
Shaffer, Andrew, "The Lavender Tide: LGBTQ Activism in Neoliberal Argentina" (2012).Master's Theses. 30.
https://repository.usfca.edu/thes/30
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The Lavender Tide

LGBTQ Activism in Neoliberal Argentina

A Thesis Presented to
The Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
MASTERS OF ARTS
in
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

By
Andrew Shaffer
December 2012

UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO
The Lavender Tide Shaffer, Andrew
Abstract:

Beginning with the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2010 and following up
with the passage of the gender identity law of 2012, Argentina has quickly catapulted
itself to the forefront of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer) rights in the world.
This study sets out to answer a simple question: how did these vast legal changes come
about in a country whose LGBTQ citizens are still met with hostility and discrimination?
In order to answer this question I look at the ways LGBTQ activists have argued for the
civil rights that they have achieved, and measure their success by analyzing hate crimes
statistics and public opinion surveys that show how the LGBTQ community is perceived
and treated in Argentina. I argue that the goals pursued by the country’s activists support
an idea of equality and rights that results from neoliberal policies and the ‘tinting’ effect
these policies have on identity politics. I label this generation of activists and political
ideas the Lavender Tide, separating them from earlier generations that promoted an
agenda that was both wider and more difficult to accomplish.

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The Lavender Tide Shaffer, Andrew
Table of Contents
List of Graphs iv
Acknowledgments v
1. Introduction 1
1.1. Rationale for the study 5
1.2. Activism in the neoliberal era 7
1.3. Terminology 13
2. Historical Background 14
2.1. 1600-1966: Conquest and repression 15
2.2. 1967-1976: Onganía’s dictatorship and early LGBTQ activism 16
2.3. 1976-1983: The military dictatorship 17
2.4. 1983-1990: The return to democracy 21
2.5. 1990-1999: The splintering of the activist community 24
2.6. 2000-2010: The beginnings of an alliance 27
2.7. 2010-2012: The legalization of same-sex marriage 29
2.8. Conclusion 32
3. Literature Review 34
3.1. Violence and human rights 35
3.2. Social movement theories 39
3.3. LGBTQ politics in the neoliberal era 42
3.4. Impact of visibility and legal changes on LGBTQ individuals 48
3.5. Latin America trends 50
3.5.1. Methods of change 51
3.5.2. Political vs. social change 52
3.6. Conclusion 56
4. Methodology 57
4.1. Interviews with activist groups 58
4.2. Hate crimes statistics 60
4.3. Public opinion surveys 62
4.4. Informal survey responses 62
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The Lavender Tide Shaffer, Andrew
5. Changes in LGBTQ activism 64
5.1. Founding memberships 66
5.2. Founding goals 68
5.3. Interviews with activists 71
5.3.1. Ideology 72
5.3.2. Language 73
5.3.3. Political alliances 75
5.3.4. Organization 77
5.4. Conclusion 81
6. The Effects of the Change 82
6.1. Hate crime statistics 83
6.1.1. Hate crimes and major events 83
6.1.2. Hate crime victims 87
6.2. Public opinion surveys 91
6.2.1. Justifiability of homosexuality 92
6.2.2. Support for same-sex marriage 97
6.2.3. Awareness of discrimination 101
6.3. Informal survey responses 103
7. Discussion 109
7.1. Summary of findings 111
7.2. LGBTQ activism 112
7.3. Recommendations 113
7.3.1. Researchers 113
7.3.2. Activists 114
8. Conclusion 115
Bibliography 118
Appendix 1: Timeline of Important Events 124
Appendix 2: Terminology 127

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The Lavender Tide Shaffer, Andrew
List of Graphs:
1. Total hate crimes (1991-2011) 84
2. Hate crimes in Buenos Aires by month (1996) 85
3. Hate crimes by province (2011) 86
4. Hate crimes by location (2011) 86
5. Hate crimes by category (1982-2011) 87
6. Average age of hate crime victims by group (1982-2011) 87
7. Hate crimes by group (1991-2011) 88
8. Hate crimes against homosexuals by location (1991-2011) 89
9. Hate crimes against travestis by location (1991-2011) 89
10. “How justifiable is homosexuality?” (Argentina, 2002-2009) 93
11. “How justifiable is homosexuality?” (Argentina, 2002-2009) 94
12. Respondents selecting “Always justifiable” by country (2002-2009) 95
13. “How justifiable is homosexuality?” (Uruguay, 2002-2009) 96
14. Support for same-sex marriage by age (Argentina, 2010) 97
15. Support for same-sex marriage according to religiosity (Argentina, 2010) 98
16. Support for same-sex marriage by province (Argentina, 2010) 99
17. Support for same-sex marriage by country (2010) 100
18. Awareness of discrimination (Argentina, 2001-2008) 102

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The Lavender Tide Shaffer, Andrew
Acknowledgments:

I owe a deep debt of gratitude to the many people who contributed to this work
and to my development as a scholar and a human being. First, I want to thank Anne
Bartlett, Mary Zweifel and the rest of the MAIS staff for letting me join this community
of scholars and for introducing me to so many new ways of thinking about the world. To
my advisor, Susana Kaiser, thank you for your constant support and encouragement even
after I abandoned my original research in the middle of fieldwork. I also want to thank
Molly Todd, who helped me get to Argentina in 2010. Thank you for being both an
advisor and a friend and for pushing to look for the stories that weren’t being told.
To my friends and family, I want to apologize for disappearing in the weeks
before this thesis was due. I promise I’ll stick around for a while now, at least until the
next due date. To my MAIS family, thank you for your love and support, both inside and
outside the classroom. I never could have survived the last year and a half without our
Sunday morning coffee dates, passionate multilingual debates, 24 hour Starbucks runs,
‘Spanish’ group meetings, intercontinental Skype dates, ‘study’ parties and study ‘parties.’
También quiero agradecer a mi ‘familia argentina’, los/as activistas lgtttbi y todos
los pibes de los boliches y bares de Buenos Aires con quienes charlaba sobre sus vidas y
experiencias. Sin su apoyo y ayuda no hubiera podido pensar en los temas y problemas
presentados en esta tesis.

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The Lavender Tide Shaffer, Andrew 1
Chapter 1: Introduction

1. Introduction
1.1. Rationale for the study 5
1.2. Activism in the neoliberal era 7
1.3. Terminology 13

“En un mundo en el que coexisten la guerra y la poesía,
en el que el espanto nuclear amenaza la subsistencia del hombre,
debemos regenerarnos hasta el punto
de rescatar todo lo que de humano hay en nosotros.

Algún día, que entreveo cada vez más cercano,
aprenderemos que, por sobre todas nuestras diferencias,
en el Planeta Tierra, sólo existen personas.”

“In a world in which war and poetry coexist,
in which nuclear terror threatens man’s very existence,
we should regenerate ourselves to the point
of rescuing all that is human in us.

Some day, I see it coming ever closer,
we will learn that, above all of our differences,
on planet Earth, there are only individuals.”1

- Carlos Jáuregui

1 Carlos Jáuregui, La Homosexualidad en la Argentina (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Tarso S.A, 1987), 15.
The Lavender Tide Shaffer, Andrew 2
On July 14, 2010 I stood with thousands of protesters in front of Argentina’s
National Congress to show support for the legalization of same-sex marriage. While we
were outside chanting, dancing, and huddling together to protect each other from the
bitter cold, inside their chambers, sixty Senators spent hour after hour debating the
approval of a law that would make Argentina the first country in Latin America to legally
recognize same-sex relationships on a national level. Although I was in the country
researching an unrelated topic at the time, this protest piqued my interest in the
development of LGBTQ rights in Argentina and caused me to question the imbalance
between the country’s progressive laws and the homophobic, machista culture that still
exists – an imbalance that this study was undertaken to address.2
To pass the time while we waited to hear the results I began to make notes of the
various messages carried by those gathered, ranging from the blasphemous to the
mundane. Many mocked the rhetoric used by religious groups, satirizing their logo
(children declaring, “We want a mom and a dad”) with messages like “We want
pedophile priests in our churches and accomplices to dictators giving mass” and “We
want abusive fathers, mothers killed by clandestine abortions.”3 Others carried more
positive messages, like one that said, “The same love, the same rights.” The image that
commanded the most attention, however, was more of an art piece than a political sign.
Leaning against the gates directly in front of the halls of Congress was a massive
inflatable penis, one side asking, “I want to get married, don’t you?” while the other side
bore a single word: “Chupala!!!” (“Suck it!!!”). This particular piece paraphrased an

2 The acronym LGBTQ represents lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and queer or questioning individuals.
3 Many members of the Argentinean Catholic church have been accused of participating in the atrocities committed by
the military dictatorship that ruled from 1976-1983. Alexei Barrionuevo, “Argentine Church Faces ‘Dirty War’ Past,”
The New York Times, Sep. 17, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/world/americas/17church.html (accessed
October 13, 2012).
The Lavender Tide Shaffer, Andrew 3
infamous insult hurled by soccer star Diego Maradona to members of the national media
who had doubted his qualifications to lead Argentina’s team in the upcoming World Cup:
“suck it…You know the way you treated me.”4 Maradona’s words do a good job of
summarizing the attitude of many of those gathered at the protest and constitute a more
vulgar version of a common refrain at LGBTQ events: We’re here, we’re queer, get used
to it! On that particular night, we were fighting for same-sex marriage, but on a grander
scale we were also demanding a space to exist and to be recognized; we were repudiating
the ways that we have historically been treated, both in Argentina and in the world at
large, and we were letting those who hate us know exactly what we thought of them.
On that night in July, we scored a rare victory in the long fight for recognition.
After more than 14 hours of debate, Argentina gained access to the infuriatingly small
group of countries that has offered relationship recognition to same-sex couples. Since
then, Argentina has continued its push towards the forefront of LGBTQ rights, creating
one of the friendliest legal systems in the world: same-sex couples in Argentina are
legally able to marry and adopt children, homosexuality is decriminalized in the armed
forces, and individuals can change their name and their gender before the state without
undergoing surgery or hormone treatment. This progress is impressive by anyone’s
standards, and the speed with which it has occurred has left many in awe.
The LGBTQ community has won some battles, however the struggle for sexual
liberation is far from over: transvestite prostitutes are still routinely murdered in the
streets of Buenos Aires, young gay kids are still disowned by homophobic families, and

4 Bruno Sanxurxo, “Maradona: "Qué la chupen. Qué la sigan chupando,” Notas de Futbol, October 15, 2009,
http://www.notasdefutbol.com/default/maradona-que-la-chupen-que-la-sigan-chupando (accessed October 13, 2012).
The connection between this symbol and Maradona’s comments was pointed out in Carlos Rodríguez, “Expectativa
frente a la sescalinatas,” Página 12 (Buenos Aires) July 15, 2010, www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-149541-2010-
07-15.html (accessed October 13, 2012).