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] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.usfca.edu/thes Part of the Lesbian, 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 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects at USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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. i 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 ii 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 iii 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 iv 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. v 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.