Subject: 10th National Women's Conference in Argentina

From: [email-masked] (Alejandra Sarda)
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 95 07:42:58 ARG

X NATIONAL WOMEN'S CONFERENCE IN ARGENTINA
Lesbianism Workshop Report

by Alejandra Sarda

National Women's Conferences

In 1986, 1,000 women attended the First National Conference in
Buenos Aires. Since then, the Conferences have been taking
place each year in a different province, with a top attendance
of 8,500 last year in Corrientes. This year, the Conference's
location was Jujuy, a northern province with strong indigenous
traditions still prevailing, and 6,000 women attended.

The Conferences are autonomous. The Organizing Committee
changes each year, according to the Conference location, and
is composed of local volunteers. No political or ideological
affiliation is attached to the Conferences. Nevertheless, it
is needed to say that the Conferences are increasingly showing
an oppositional tone (regarding the current government) and
that each year more and more women arrive who are sent by
political parties or unions with an agenda that relates more
to national politics than to women's specifical claims. But
there are still a lot of grass-roots, independent women
attending. And there are also many activists with a double or
triple affiliation who -at least during the Conference- choose
to give priority to those "women's issues" that, precisely for
being "women's" are seldom ranked high in political parties or
union's agendas.

During 3 days, women gather in workshops covering the most
diverse subjects: Education, Health, Work, Political Parties,
Family, Environment, Feminism, Power, Sexuality, Young Women,
Older Women, Religion, Sports, Arts and Culture, Native Women,
Latin American Solidarity, Human Rights, Violence, Grass-root
Organizations, Media, Women's Movement and Disability. In
1991, a workshop on Lesbianism was added to the list. This
year, 4 workshops were added: Current Employment Crisis, Rural
Women, Migrant Women and Abortion.

Between 40 and 60 women attend each workshop. In many cases,
there are 4 or 5 simultaneous workshops on the same subject,
due to the huge amount of participants. Each workshop sets up
its own agenda. There is a facilitator previously chosen by
the Organizing Committee, whose only task is to put some order
into the discussion. Every participant is encouraged to speak
on equal terms, on the basis that everyone has valuable
personal experiences and knowledge. On the third day, the
workshop produces a synthesis of its work or "Final
Conclusions", that are later read on a plenary. Consensus is
the privileged methodology; if no consensus is reached, all
stances are mentioned in the Conclusions.

The plenary chooses the next Conference's location. This time,
Buenos Aires was chosen. The reason behind is that, even
though the Conferences are the most attended event in
Argentina, media have never payed any attention to them. The
Conferences are absolutely ignored by mainstream media, and
they deserve only a few lines on local newspapers at
Conference locations. It was thought that the attendance will
be three times stronger in Buenos Aires and 12,000 women
together will produce a social event of such magnitude that
media will have no other choice but to report on it.

The Conferences include cultural activities (songs, dances,
drama perfomances) and also a parade alongside the location's
main streets. No political banners are allowed in the parade,
only women organization's.

For all of us who attend them, the Conferences are a very
enriching experience, because they give us the opportunity to
meet women from the most diverse backgrounds and ideological
stances, and to exchange point of views and working
methodologies with them. Moreover, they provide an unique
opportunity to spread information that is never circulated
through other channels, to fill with voices and images the
silence that mainstream culture wants to impose on us.

Lesbianism Workshop

Last year, the many lesbian groups active in Buenos Aires were
represented in Corrientes by a (for us) large delegation of
around 30 women. This year, due to the severe economical
recession that is hitting all of us real hard, only 2
activists were able to attend (Bibiana Lorenzano, from
Lesbianas a la Vista, and myself), kindly invited by the
University of Buenos Aires Students Federation, with whom we
are working towards the derogation of Police Edicts. We
traveled more than 30 hours by bus, together with a wonderful
group of women aged 18 to 20 from whom we learnt a lot. And we
stayed with them in a school, kindly lent to us by the
Organizing Committee.

Around 60 women attended the workshop, most of them straights
who wanted to "know more" and "get rid of prejudices". The
lack of activists was wonderfully compensated by the presence
of lesbians living in small provincial towns who undergo
severe discrimination on a daily basis. Many were the subjects
we dealt with, the following being just a synthesis.

* The concept of "lesbian". We made clear that "lesbian" does
not necessarily equals "transvestite", "transexual",
"pedophile" or "hermaphrodite"

* Relationship between the Lesbian Movement and other social
movements: lack of reciprocity on the part of those movements
actively supported by us (Feminism, Human Rights, etc.)

* Work Discrimination: one of the workshop's key issues.
Moving testimonies were heard, like that from a lesbian living
in San Luis province, a teacher who had the best grades of her
class but had to hire a lawyer and threaten her school with a
trial in order to get her degree. Of course, once graduated
she had to leave town to be able to get a job. She was never
allowed to teach girls or coed classes, only boys'. We talked
about the direct discrimation faced by visible lesbians (those
reflecting the stereotypes) and the hidden discrimination
endured by those who "pass" and pay the price of lying and
being terrified.

* Economical situation. How being economically self-sufficent
is a sine-qua-non condition for fully experiencing one's
lesbian identity. The lessons of history: lesbian identity as
such came up during the XX century, along women's massive
entrance in the work-force. Wages discrimination: lesbian
households live on two "half-wages" (women's wages). Lesbians
who can not leave their families of origin because they lack
the economical means to do it, being exposed to mistreatment
and putting their mental/physical health at risk.

* Relationship with family of origin. There were many
different testimonies, ranging from stories of love and
support to others of rejection and abuse. Nevertheless,
everyone agreed that the acceptance is never absolute: the
family always keeps wishing the lesbian will "change". Someone
suggested incest as a "cause" for lesbianism and a majority
questioned that assumption on the basis of the pervasive
character of incest in our society. Child sexual abuse was
considered, instead, as a brutal way of learning woman's place
in a pathriarcal society.

* Motherhood. Some participants questioned the possibility
that lesbian couples adopt children, alledging that those
children will face society's rejection. But they were quickly
dismissed by many testimonies. Some came from social workers
who stated that -if they were legally authorized to do it-
they will not have the slightest doubt to place children in
lesbian families, giving priority to love and care over
prejudices because the social workers think the real damaging
situation for children is to be in institutions or in the
streets. Lesbian mothers also spoke: one older woman who had
conceived her son more than 20 years ago, when the subject was
not even dreamed of, and had raised him without major
difficulties; and a young rural couple who were rasing one of
them's biological child since birth. It is worth mentioning
that, after a few lesbians expressed their desire to be
mothers in the future, most straight women felt relieved to
discover that "finally, we are all women". It was not possible
to push this line of analysis on the workshop, but once again
it is observed that motherhood is almost our only allowed path
to legitimation ... even before other women.

* Lesbian teenagers. The participants agreed that heterosexual
models are imposed with a particular strenght on teenage
girls, who lack the material possibilities to start a life of
their own. Very painful personal experiences were told. A
survey done in Buenos Aires in 1992 revealed that 45% of those
lesbians interviewed had attempted suicide at least one, and
78% of those attempts took place when they were between 16 and
19 years old. The participants agreed that it is needed to
deal with the issue on high schools, with the help of lesbian
professionals / teachers/ activists. If lesbian teachers were
able to come out without being fired for doing so, they could
offer a lot of help and support to lesbian teenagers and those
trying to define their sexual identity.

* Violence against lesbians. Many examples of recent Police
harassment were denounced, together with the responses given
by organized lesbians.

In their "Final Conclusions", the workshop condemned Police
brutality and suggested:

- To include "sexual orientation" as a category in the current
Anti Discriminatory Law.
- To derogate Police Edicts
- To support the right to adoption / assisted fertilization
for every couple (homosexual or straight) and single women who
demand it.
- Equal rights for homosexual and straight couples.

Even though the workshop has no concrete power to translate
its suggestions into realities, the fact that a considerable
amount of straight women from the most diverse backgrounds and
ideologies recognized that lesbians are entitled to those
rights is a huge step ahead. 

As it has already happened in previous Conference, women who
attended the workshop usually share their insights with other
women and men in their NGOs, neighborhoods, political parties,
families, and the like. May be this is one of the most
powerful and persistent effects of our work during the
Conferences.

Later on, when the parade marched along Jujuy streets, 8
lesbians held a large banner reading "Lesbianas a la vista"
(Lesbians on Sight). And we chanted something like "the
struggle is one and the same/ that's why you better keep the
lesbians on sight", kindly echoed by straight feminists that
were marching nearby. Meanwhile, a few straight high school
students who had attended the workshop distributed our
leaflets among those watching the parade. It was a very moving
"end", the most suitable one could imagine to match the deep
analysis and affectionate comminment showed by the workshop
participants.

"Escrita en el Cuerpo" - Archivo y Biblioteca Lesbica
(Written on the Body - Lesbian Archives and Library)
Piedras 1170, 1ero.B
(1070) Buenos Aires, Argentina
Phone: 54-1-931 96 48 / 54-1- 307 66 56
E.mail: [email-masked]

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