LGBTQ+: LATINX PERSPECTIVE
by Daniela Cortés
Deni Quiles, activist and member of
La Sombrilla Cuir (The Queer Umbrella) and Calu
Lema, activist for LGBTQ+ rights and gender
violence, give their insights as representatives
of different communities.
What is gender identity?
DQ: It´s key to understand sex is different than
gender. Gender is how you feel and how you feel
most comfortable with. Gender has to do with
how you choose to interact with others (…) and
it is not binary - man or woman.
CL: Gender identity is how a person defines
himself; your personal / internal sense of
gender. The problem is that we currently have
a binary script, due to colonisation, that leaves
people with only two options: to be a man or to
be a woman.
What is the biggest challenge to talk about identity
nowadays?
DQ: There is still a lot to do and explain,
especially because there is still a pressure to live
your gender and identify as the way you were
born - anatomically speaking.
CL: The most difficult thing to explain is that
each person has a different sense of identity and
for the majority, that identity is related to their
sex / genitals. This prevents us from collectively
perceiving that this association does not work
for everyone and that our identity - how it
forms, evolves, changes, establishes itself - is
complex and goes beyond our anatomy, which
is also diverse and includes intersex people.
Do you have to belong to a community to talk and
stand on their behalf?
DQ: If you want to participate then you
must know your place. If you want to be the
protagonist, but you are not a member of the
community, then you will be taking someone
else´s opportunity and platform that is fighting
and going through it.
CL: Anyone can be an ally to a cause as long
as they do not co-opt space, misrepresent
the message, or focus their activism on
themselves. As they say out there, feminism
does not correspond to make room for men.
It is up to men to turn the spaces they inhabit
into feminist spaces. It is not necessary to be
from the LGBTQ + community to support the
protests, projects, or initiatives that bring
visibility and demand the rights to which the
cisgender and / or heterosexual people have
access. People can take advantage of their
privilege to amplify voices, attract attention,
and raise awareness among those around them.
The biggest problem is not the extremists, it is
the progressives, centrists, and liberals who are
not aware of how they perpetuate oppression by
not challenging the system that protects their
identities.
“
The biggest problem is not the
extremists, it is the progressives,
centrists, and liberals who are
not aware of how they perpetuate
oppression
”
image Unsplash: Toni Reed
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