Special to The News
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Mexico City will host its fourth annual "Marcha Lésbica," or Lesbian March, on Saturday, and in spite of some advances, the event's organizers say that much still needs to be done to promote a culture of tolerance.
Mariana Pérez, the march's program coordinator and editor of lesbian culture magazine Les Voz, said that the city has yet to embrace tolerance. The city in some ways has reached out to homosexuals - gay civil unions have been recognized since 2006 - but it's not enough, Pérez said.
About 2,000 people participated in the Mexico City march last year, and this year's rally, titled, "En Cada Beso una Revolución," or "In Every Kiss a Revolution," is expected to top that. Marchers from all around the country, as well as the United States and Canada, are expected to attend.
First and foremost on the march's agenda is a demand for respect for lesbians throughout Mexican society.
Juana Guzmán, logistics and finance coordinator for the Marcha Lésbica, said lesbians are often regularly repressed, beaten and killed for being gay, especially in the nation's rural areas.
Lesbians from the provinces are notably absent from rallies like the Marcha Lésbica, she said - "evidence that there's no freedom for them, that they have to be hidden."
According to organizers Pérez and her partner Breana George, the marchers will also use Saturday to call for access to public health procedures such as artificial insemination and assisted pregnancy. The city provides financial assistance for both costly procedures, but only to heterosexual females. Demonstrators will also ask that the city live up to its promise to approve conjugal visits for lesbian prisoners.
Pérez added that the lesbian march is not to be confused with the nation's gay rights movement.
"The gay rights movement, in recent decades, has been exclusively focused on men and their sexuality, and doesn't analyze social aspects like poverty, capitalism and globalization," she said. "We understand our true needs, and they're not the same as gay men." There is "very little solidarity" between gay and lesbian rights movements in Mexico, in part because of the gay movement's machismo, she said.
The organizers also said that some city officials pressured them not to hold it. They said officials called the Marcha Lésbica staff to tell them they shouldn't - and couldn't - host the event. City officials contacted for a response said they were unaware of any such phone calls.
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