From: buckmr@rpi.edu (Ron Buckmire)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Gay Pride in Argentina
Date: 21 Aug 92 06:19:51 GMT
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To: gaynet@athena.mit.edu
cc: ILGA@eng.ox.ac.uk
Subject: Gay Pride in Argentina
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 02:19:51 -0400
From: Ron Buckmire <buckmr>

/* Written  9:50 pm  Aug 20, 1992 by jbinder in cdp:queerplanet */
/* ---------- "Gay Pride in Argentina!!!" ---------- */

Argentina Celebrates First Gay Pride Week

>From The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC)
540 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA  94114
phone: (415) 255 86 80
fax: (415) 255 86 62
email: jbinder@igc.org


An estimated 300 gay men and lesbians marched through the streets of Buenos 
Aires on the evening of July 3, in the culmination of the first-ever gay pride 
celebration in Argentina.  Representing seven gay, lesbian, and transsexual 
organizations, they paraded from the Government Palace to the Congress carrying 
pink banners and placards demanding equal rights.  "Respect!" the demonstrators 
shouted.  "Respect for the gays and lesbians marching the streets of 
Argentina!"  

Coming only four month's after the first legal recognition of a gay 
organization in the country, the success of the week's events surprised even 
the organizers.  The recognition followed a three-year legal battle, in which 
the case eventually reached the Argentine Supreme Court of Justice, which 
denied legal status to the gay movement.  Following international pressure 
orchestrated by the San Francisco-based International Gay and Lesbian Human 
Rights Commission, Argentine President Menem finally granted legal recognition 
last March.

Other Gay & Lesbian Pride Week events played to overflow crowds.  A gay rights 
forum was held under the sponsorship of several human rights organizations, 
including the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the most important organization in 
the struggle for human rights under Argentina's former military dictatorship.  
The event also featured an exhibition of gay and lesbian art, which was on 
display at the city's main cultural center.  Latin American and Spanish 
gay-themed films were shown to a packed house during the country's first 
lesbian and gay film festival.

Especially successful was Expresida, a separately organized exhibition of AIDS 
education materials from over 50 countries.  In its fifteen days, an incredible 
130,000 people passed through the exhibit hall, participated in debates, and 
watched a screening of the American film Longtime Companion.  The exhibit 
featured posters, books, videotapes, and brochures from around the world 
promoting AIDS prevention.

"We are extremely satisfied with the progress weUve made in the visibility of 
gays and lesbians in Argentina,S said Carlos Jauregui, organizer of many of the 
week's activities.  The Argentine press treated the march as a major happening, 
with all of the principal newspapers and television stations providing mostly 
favorable coverage.  One newspaper explained that the event was a commemoration 
of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York, which it called the beginning of the 
gay rights movement worldwide.  Another paper noted its surprise that the 
demonstrators were not all young upper class men, but were ordinary-looking 
people of all ages, men and women whose clothing suggested that they belonged 
to the lower and middle classes.



For more information, photographs, or videotape, contact Enrique Asis at (415) 
255-8680 or (415) 281-0763.

- ---
RON BUCKMIRE, 11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180-3735. 
uunet!rpi.edu!buckmr||buckmr@rpitsmts.bitnet||buckmr@rpi.edu||+1 518 276 8910
"In any battle for freedom of identity there can be no distinction between the
 private and the political." --David Leavitt's _Family Dancing_

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