"Marriage or Death!"

Argentian LGBT Struggle inspires the Pink Fight in Peru

Tags: Latin America , Civil Society Building

By Marten van den Berge.

The time has come: Argentina is the first country in Latin America where at national level, marriage is permitted to non-heterosexual couples. They also have the opportunity to adopt children or to use artificial insemination. On July 15, following a 15 hour debating marathon of the Argentine Senate, the law was adopted by 33 votes to 27 votes against and 3 abstentions. There was a tense mood between the conservatives in alliance with the Catholic church and the progressives led by the ruling Peronist Party. They diametrically opposed and the outcome remained unclear until the end.

The contrast became apparent at the Plaza de los Dos Congresos Buenos Aires, where hundreds of supporters and opponents gathered to await the outcome of the vote. Conservative groups had banners saying "only marriage between a man and woman” and “I want a mommy and a daddy”. They held crosses and statues of saints in the air and organized prayer sessions so that the Senate would vote against the law. Their prayers were not answered. The hundreds of gays, lesbians and transgender attendees, along with progressive activists from leftist political parties and various sympathic social movements, exploded after the vote fell in their favour. They celebrated their victory late into the morning.

A few days after the vote it became clear that the battle is not over yet: Argentinean registrars indicated that they would not marry gay and lesbian couples because of conscientious objection. Judge Marta Covella from Buenos Aires even said that she would not marry gays "even if that will cost me my job or my life. I listen to God and what he regards as good and evil. And the Bible clearly says that a homosexual relationship is bad." Alberto Rias, the director of the population register of Cordoba, said that he would not marry gays because "I do not want God to condemn me for it later.” And indeed, only a week after legally accepting this type of marriage there were already several ‘registries of refusal’.

Nevertheless, this amendment of law was a milestone in a country where officially 91% is Catholic. It is a coronation of more than 30 years of ‘the Pink fight’ in Argentina. In general it is also a major victory regarding equal rights for gay and lesbians in the Latin American region.

Symbolically the law extends further than just Argentina. The adopted law struck like a bomb here in Peru, the country where I have been doing my research for one year into the Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans movement in the context of the Civil Society Building Program Knowledge of HIVOS / ISS. Peru is also one of the few countries in Latin America that still has no protective legislation in LGBT rights. The Peruvian movement for sexual diversity was in ecstasy for one week after the adoption of the law: through mailing lists and facebook congratulations were pouring in for the Argentine LGBT activists. Peruvian activists called upon each other to unite and build up pressure in Peru to get laws approved for equal rights for gay, lesbians and transgenders.

The movement is not united with regard to gay marriage. Just like in the Netherlands, when the discussion about gay marriage initiated, there are clear supporters and opponents. In a nutshell, the opponents emphasize that marriage is an institution invented by the state and church to control the people and therefore bourgeois and reactionary. Some pink socialists argue that marriage is a building block of capitalism and thus it would block a "new anti-capitalist world". And besides, why should we as gays and lesbians want to copy the hetero sexual norms, we want to resist against the heterosexual norms: we should be experimenting with new and "liberating" forms of relationships (such as poly-love, open relationships, etc). On the other hand, supporters argue that opening up marriage is a matter of equality: “we're not second class citizens”, and "if heterosexuals have a right to marriage, gay men and lesbians should have that right as well'. And besides, marriage is associated with a whole set of rights that you cannot obtain otherwise.

In any case, the Peruvian LGBT movement seems to be more united regarding this issue, since the opening of the marriage in Argentina. The critics are somewhat baffled and many Peruvian gay and lesbian activists have a new motto “since Argentina”: “matrimonio o muerte” (marriage or death, ed.), a pink variation of the slogan “patria o muerte” (motherland or death, ed.), by the infamous Argentine revolutionary who overthrew the Batista dictatorship along with Fidel Castro in Cuba in 1959: Ernesto "Che" Guevarra,

The opponents of gay and lesbian marriages outside the movement did not miss the opportunity to spread their criticism. Of course it was Archbishop Cipriani, the country's conservative numero uno, who was the first one to be heard. He said in response that "Argentina has a lot of bad things, like their football team. We Peruvians should therefore not just copy everything they do." And, as it would appear later in the right-wing columns of conservative newspapers: “the institution of marriage is based on a natural order in which man and woman complement each other for life”. The political parties also responded: one of the main candidates for the upcoming municipal elections in the capital Lima, Lourdes Flores Nano of the Partido Popular Cristiano, said: "Marriage is a juridical heterosexual institution, where man and woman unite and formalize relationships.” Obviously she can kiss the support of the LGBT community for her candidacy goodbye.

The biggest surprise however came from Augusto Vargas, MP on behalf of the Amazon province of Loreto for the ruling right-wing APRA party. He said in an interview that the Peruvian constitution discriminates where it states that marriage is only allowed between a man and woman. Next week he will submit a bill that would allow registered partnership for LGBT's, as a first step to eventually revise the constitution. The first reaction of the LGBT movement, with the majority being more identified with leftist politics, was a skeptical one. The right-wing APRA government has never served the LGBT community in the past four years of ruling. Rather the opposite: it has made discriminatory legislation, like banning homosexuality within the military and police. Hence Vargas’ bill is mainly seen as a strategy to gain votes for the presidential elections next year, and as a smokescreen to hide public opinion from the internal chaos, corruption scandals and failures on several fronts of the APRA government.

Vargas himself denies this in an interview with activists from the LGBT movement. And he told that since this bill was passed he is being made fun of within his party and he is "accused" of being gay. This case indicates again the homophobia within the current APRA government. It is very doubtful whether the bill is going to be adopted. Nevertheless, the bill of Vargas is a sign that 'Argentina' has a big impact on Pink politics in Peru and it offers important opportunities for the Peruvian movement for sexual diversity. Despite the left winged sympathies there have already been several meetings between Vargas and organizations from the movement to forge alliances in order to get the bill passed. In addition, there are now lobbying discussions with various parties on two other bills for which the Peruvian LGBT movement has been trying to get support for already one year: a national law on non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and specific penalties for perpetrators of hate crimes that are very common here in Peru. In short, the Peruvian LGBT movement has gained strength in the fight and hopes to soon repeat the example of Argentine activists. After more than 25 years Pink fighting in Peru: “matrimonio o muerte!”

NB. This article was first published for the Gaykrant in Dutch. English translation by Neha Hofstede Gupta.