"¡La Puebla Lucha!" Exploring the Rise of LGBT Activism and Strategic Visibility in El Salvador

• In Event: Cross-Hemispheric LGBTI Activisms: migrations, strategies, and visibilities

Abstract

Organization of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans (LGBT) community in El Salvador formally began after the country’s Civil War ended in 1991, when a group of five trans women and gay men formed a collective in San Salvador’s Parque Cuscatlán. Today, there are more than 20 LGBT organizations in El Salvador actively fighting extreme rates of violence and marginalization, and in 2017, 15 of these organizations united to form the Federación LGBT El Salvador. Over the last year, the Federación, as well as independent activists and autonomous lesbofeminist organizations, have completed unprecedented events and protests that have begun to make visible LGBT struggles in the country. However, because of the high rates of physical and structural violence, visibility also comes with perilous risks for a population that is already marginalized. Building on past experience living and working in El Salvador and summer fieldwork, this paper reflects on 23 open-ended interviews with LGBT activists and members of LGBT organizations in El Salvador and engaged participant observation at 28 LGBT events that took place during the months of May and June of 2018. In order to understand the struggles and successes of the fight for LGBT rights in El Salvador, this paper examines the strategic use of visibility as a means for humanizing El Salvador’s LGBT population in the eyes of a machista, conservative society, while also analyzing the contradictions and risks of spotlighting marginalized queer bodies.

Author

• Annalise Gardella