Enacting Visibility: LGBT Identity Strategies in Argentina

• In Event: From Breakthrough to Backlash: Global LGBT Rights in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

How do organizations ask for social and political inclusion and representation? What exactly are they asking for? Using the case study of the Argentine LGBT movement following adoption of same-sex marriage, this paper explores how La Fulana, a Buenos Aires-based lesbian and bisexual women’s organization, enacted their demand for equal rights and lesbian visibility in public. Data from sixteen interviews with lesbian activists demonstrates that La Fulana’s demand for lesbian visibility is also a demand that indeterminate, critical, and collective lesbian subjectivities enter the public sphere. La Fulana members embodied this demand during the annual Buenos Aires Pride March with actions such as mounting a truck draped with a banner ‘Lesbian Visibility’ and inviting other parade goers to climb onto the truck to become the face (and body) of lesbian visibility. By doing so, members of La Fulana physically embody a corrective to social and political marginalization that continues to remove lesbians from public consideration even after the transition to liberal democracy and the recognition of same-sex marriage. This project contributes to studies of transnational LGBT studies and democratization by uncovering the context-specific meanings LGBT rights, such as “equality" and “visibility."

Author

• Julie Moreau, University of Toronto