Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

LESBIAN & GAY STRUGGLE SPANS GLOBE

By Shelley Ettinger

Recent developments underscore the gay rights movement's
international character.

News is sometimes slow to arrive. But it's worth passing on
because it shows how the struggle is advancing and
growing--especially in Latin America, but also in Africa and
Asia.

Jorg Cortias of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights
Commission has called on all progressives to stand with the VI
Feminist Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean against
right-wing forces in EL SALVADOR.

The Latin American feminist convention is scheduled to convene in
El Salvador's Costa del Sol on Oct. 30. But in an urgent
communiqu, Cortias reports "attempts by sectors of the political
right in El Salvador to derail the conference because of previous
feminist support for lesbian liberation."

At the end of September, conference organizers issued an appeal
for support in the face of "articles in a right-wing daily
newspaper linking the VI Feminist Conference with the FMLN and
expressing alarm over the creation of political and social space
for lesbians and homosexuals."

According to Cortias, "The country's first lesbian group was
formed last year." But, he writes, "lesbian and gay organizing in
El Salvador stands at a critical juncture."

Since the U.S.-brokered agreement suspending military activity
went into effect, "homophobic violence may be on the rise as two
transvestites were murdered by high-caliber bullets in San
Salvador this summer."

Gay and lesbian rights groups held their seventh national
convention Sept. 4-7 in Sao Paolo, Brazil. The Brazilian movement
is demanding that discrimination based on sexual orientation be
barred in the country's new constitution.

A new group, the National Committee of Lesbians and Homosexuals,
formed at the end of the summer in Mexico. According to an
article in Las Virreinas--a bulletin produced by the lesbian
group El Closet de Sor Juana--the new committee "will advocate
the defense of our human rights." It will also form a "support
center for the gay community in Mexico."

In Argentina earlier this year, four lesbian groups--Las Lunas y
Las Otras, Grupo de Autogesti"n y Reflexi"n de Lesbianas,
Convocatoria Lesbiana, and the women of Communidad Homosexual
Argentina--formed a "joint front" to work together. According to
a report from the International Lesbian and Gay Association, when
the front participated in International Women's Day
demonstrations, "it was the first time that banners included
specific lesbian demands."

The Organization for Lesbian and Gay Action is mobilizing "to
make sure that lesbian, gay and bisexual rights are included in
the new constitution" in South Africa. OLGA has drawn up a list
of demands. Since its inception, the South African gay movement
has been allied with the African National Congress. Several years
ago, the ANC endorsed the struggle for gay rights; a recent OLGA
statement confirms that the ANC remains "committed ... to gay and
lesbian equality."

Indonesia's lesbian and gay organizations will hold their first
national meeting in December in the city of Yogyakarta. The gay
newspaper Gaya Nusantara is calling on people from around the
country to participate in the historic gathering. A new lesbian
network--Chandra Kirana--is organizing women's participation. The
network's name comes, according to the ILGA newsletter, from "an
ancient Javanese historical legend of a woman named Chandra
Kirana who fell in love with another woman."

                               -30-

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World,
55 West 17 St., New York, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@blythe.org.)

+ NEW NUMBERS!    NY Transfer News Collective       SAME ADDRESS +
+ Guests:                 Members Only:                Internet: +
+ 212-675-9690            212-675-9663            nyt@blythe.org +