From queerplanet-owner Fri Aug 25 07:24:02 1995 Received: (from root@localhost) by abacus.oxy.edu (8.6.10/8.6.11) id HAA28474 for queerplanet-outgoing; Fri, 25 Aug 1995 07:16:21 -0700 Received: from ccc.uba.ar (dcfcen.uba.ar [157.92.1.2]) by abacus.oxy.edu (8.6.10/8.6.11) with SMTP id HAA28466 for ; Fri, 25 Aug 1995 07:15:57 -0700 Received: from wamani by ccc.uba.ar with uucp (Smail3.1.28.1 #5) id m0slxTb-000DmjC; Fri, 25 Aug 95 10:03 GMT-1:00 Received: by wamani.apc.org (1.65/waf) via UUCP; Fri, 25 Aug 95 07:45:06 ARG for queerplanet@abacus.oxy.edu To: queerplanet@abacus.oxy.edu Cc: gaynet@queernet.org, ifor@gn.apc.org, ilga@gn.apc.org, rwockner@netcom.com Subject: 10th National Women's Conference in Argentina From: ales@wamani.apc.org (Alejandra Sarda) Comments: -- Message-ID: Date: Fri, 25 Aug 95 07:42:58 ARG Organization: Red APC - Nodo Wamani - (CCI), Buenos Aires, AR Sender: queerplanet-owner@abacus.oxy.edu Precedence: bulk Content-Length: 11185 X-Lines: 243 Status: RO 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: ales@wamani.apc.org -- ales@wamani.apc.org < Fin - End > ****************************************************************************** To send a message to the entire list "queerplanet", email queerplanet@abacus.oxy.edu This list is run by the program MAJORDOMO@abacus.oxy.edu. *******************************************************************************