From: Meg Satterthwaite The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission announced its "Felipa da Souza" Award. IGLHRC seeks annually to honor two individuals and one organization that, at great risk or personal cost or otherwise, have made significant contributions toward securing the human rights and freedoms of sexual minorities anywhere in the world. They define sexual minorities to include lesbians, bisexuals, gay men, transvestites, transsexuals and others oppressed due to their sexual identities or sexual conduct between consenting adults. The sexual identity of the individuals is not a criteria for the award. Persons or organizations may nominate themselves. An individual can be nominated posthumously. Nominations may be made by anyone. Decisions will be made by the International Advisory Board and the Board of Directors of the IGLHRC. Award recipients will be honored at an event in New York during the Stonewall 25 celebrations during the last week of June, 1994. Nominations may be faxed. For more information or registration forms contact IGLHRC at: 514 Castro Street San Francisco, CA 94114 USA tel: 415 255-8680 e-mail: iglhrc@igc.apc.org Felipa da Souza In 1591 the holy inquisition began its notorious "confession sessions" in the northeast of Brazil, basing their operations in Salvador, then the capital of the colony. The aim of the "confession sessions" was to search for and arrest those accused of sins and crimes against the Faith and sexual morals. Amongst the first to confess was Paula de Sequeira who, on August 20, accused a widow named Felipa da Souza, from whom she had been receiving love letters for two years, of having shared many moments of physical pleasure. As the "nefarious and abominable crime of sodomy" was punishable by death, and knowing that the inquisitors were sympathetic to those who volunteered confessions, many panic-stricken women came forward and admitted to intimate relations with Felipa. A crucial biographical detail is the fact that earlier in her life Felipa had been expelled from a convent in Portugal, for the crime of sodomy. The notorious Felipa must have caused a good deal of apprehension in the small Salvador as she was the only one of the accused women to actually face the holy courts. During the trial, she admitted to indeed having had intimate relations with the women mention,ed brazenly stating that "all those communications provided her much love and carnal affection." Found guilty, Felipa's sentence was less severe than that doled out to the many lesbians being burned at the stake in Germany and France at the time. On January 4, 1592, she was condemned to exile. Holding a lit candle, barefooted and wearing a simple tunic, she was viciously whipped while walking the streets of Salvador so she could serve as an example to all inhabitants. As spiritual penance, she was forced to fast on bread and water for 15 Fridays and 9 Saturdays in honor of the purity of the Virgin Mary, and to pray the psalm "Misere" 33 times. She was then expelled from the state of Bahia, taking with her "her vices and ill reputation." Besides the shame and public humiliation of the exile, Felipa da Souza also had to pay for all the trial costs: 922 reis, at the time the equivalent of a sailor's monthly salary,m or three months of a manual laborer's pay. Based on an extract from O Lesbianismo no Brasil, by Luiz Mott Mercado Aberto, 1987