Subject: Gay Pride in Argentina!!! /* Written 9:50 pm Aug 20, 1992 by jbinder in cdp:queerplanet */ /* ---------- "Gay Pride in Argentina!!!" ---------- */ Argentina Celebrates First Gay Pride Week >From The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) 540 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114 phone: (415) 255 86 80 fax: (415) 255 86 62 email: jbinder@igc.org An estimated 300 gay men and lesbians marched through the streets of Buenos Aires on the evening of July 3, in the culmination of the first-ever gay pride celebration in Argentina. Representing seven gay, lesbian, and transsexual organizations, they paraded from the Government Palace to the Congress carrying pink banners and placards demanding equal rights. "Respect!" the demonstrators shouted. "Respect for the gays and lesbians marching the streets of Argentina!" Coming only four month's after the first legal recognition of a gay organization in the country, the success of the week's events surprised even the organizers. The recognition followed a three-year legal battle, in which the case eventually reached the Argentine Supreme Court of Justice, which denied legal status to the gay movement. Following international pressure orchestrated by the San Francisco-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Argentine President Menem finally granted legal recognition last March. Other Gay & Lesbian Pride Week events played to overflow crowds. A gay rights forum was held under the sponsorship of several human rights organizations, including the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the most important organization in the struggle for human rights under Argentina's former military dictatorship. The event also featured an exhibition of gay and lesbian art, which was on display at the city's main cultural center. Latin American and Spanish gay-themed films were shown to a packed house during the country's first lesbian and gay film festival. Especially successful was Expresida, a separately organized exhibition of AIDS education materials from over 50 countries. In its fifteen days, an incredible 130,000 people passed through the exhibit hall, participated in debates, and watched a screening of the American film Longtime Companion. The exhibit featured posters, books, videotapes, and brochures from around the world promoting AIDS prevention. "We are extremely satisfied with the progress weUve made in the visibility of gays and lesbians in Argentina,S said Carlos Jauregui, organizer of many of the week's activities. The Argentine press treated the march as a major happening, with all of the principal newspapers and television stations providing mostly favorable coverage. One newspaper explained that the event was a commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York, which it called the beginning of the gay rights movement worldwide. Another paper noted its surprise that the demonstrators were not all young upper class men, but were ordinary-looking people of all ages, men and women whose clothing suggested that they belonged to the lower and middle classes. For more information, photographs, or videotape, contact Enrique Asis at (415) 255-8680 or (415) 281-0763.