Thinking about diversity and putting it into practice opens the door towards a future of consensus and justice. However, to accomplish this, it is up to all of society to make changes in the present, that address the individual and the collective, the public and the private, subverting power relations in all of these arenas.

This implies the reconstruction, from a pluralistic approach, of all social, political, cultural and economic perspectives.  Along with this, a revolution is set in motion, both in thought, as well as in the dominant hierarchical and linear practices, resulting in the reinvention of the full gamut of social relations with regard for human complexity and our ongoing evolution and transformation.

Recognizing the socio-political dimensions of sexuality and the body is amongst the incremental advances that people have made toward a more humanitarian way of life, with appreciation for its diverse forms of expression. It is in this regard that at the end of the last century feminists coined the idea of sexual rights, referring primarily to personal autonomy and the freedom to make personal decisions in one’s sexual life. However, by placing sexuality in the sphere of rights, they have also demonstrated its relevance to social, political, economic and gender relations.

Since then, new movements, particularly the LGBT[1] movement, have posed significant questions to the capitalist sexual order, to patriarchal heterosexism, and to the socio-political limitations that result from a binary concept of gender, bringing plurality to light in this latter regard. According to the philosopher Beatriz Preciado, "There is no single sexual difference, but rather a multitude of differences; power relations are transversal and the potentialities of life diverse."[2]² This also draws attention to various forms of domination, of people subject to discrimination, and of interconnections between types of discrimination that are caused by a range of motives.

The emergence of organized movements that highlight this multiplicity and which are reworking views on people suffering discrimination as political subjects, challenges one of the key factors that cement current power relations: the relegation of the majority of people to the category of "minority" resulting from the legitimization of various forms of discrimination including sexism, racism, heterosexism and classism, amongst others. With increasing frequency, movements that make demands concerning sexuality are making connections among various forms of discrimination, in order to propose fundamental changes and to develop new political approaches that confront patriarchal domination as much as they do capitalism.

Changes in Latin America and the Caribbean

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the processes of social demands and political organization concerning sexuality have primarily focused on strengthening civil rights and creating new policies for the eradication of sexism and discrimination based upon sexual orientation and gender identity. This has led to concrete results at the institutional level in almost every country.

Amongst many possible examples are: the recognition in the 1998 Ecuadorian Constitution of no-discrimination based upon sexual orientation, sexual rights and the right to make personal decisions concerning one’s sexuality; the adoption of policies and programs such as the 2004 initiative by the Cuban government that recognizes gender diversity, within a broad national program providing funding for education, health, employment, communication, justice, etc.; also in 2004, the national proposal "Brazil without Homophobia" came forward, which in addition to the creation of a specialized secretariat, proposes education, health, culture and legal policies; and, the 2007 adoption by the Federal District of Mexico of the "Law for the Coexistence of Diverse Societies" which recognizes same sex unions.

On an international level, two Latin-American countries have brought initiatives before the UN that reaffirm rights and freedoms related to sexual orientation and which condemn human rights violations on the basis of sexual discrimination. In 2003, Brazil gained the support of 54 countries in its initiative before the Commission on Human Rights. As part of the 2001 “World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance” an initiative by Ecuador received the support of about 50 countries. The Andean Community of Nations (CAN) and the Organization of American States (OAS) have also developed their own human rights clauses similar to those mentioned above.

In other words, institutions and society are changing thanks to such actions and in particular to the work of the LGBT and feminist movements. However, sexism, hetero-sexism and homophobia persist across many social practices, bringing about a range of consequences, such as can be seen in the emergence of new ultra-conservative groups, as well as in the discriminatory practices of certain left-wing sectors and even in certain social movements.

 
So this is a complex process, in which each country has its own distinct features and contradictions. While Brazil, for example, has put forward the most progressive national and international initiatives on various topics related to sexuality, it also registers the highest rate of homophobic crimes.  On this basis, an important part of the movement for sexual diversity in Latin America and Caribbean continues to be making demands for human rights and struggling against impunity.

Sexual Capitalism

Human trafficking, especially of women; the sex industry, which constitutes one of the most profitable sectors of the globalized economy; the commercialization and reduction of diversity to a catalogue of merchandise; as well as other manifestations of patriarchal capitalism, are the antithesis of proposals from social movements that aim to subvert sexual power relations, leading toward a sexuality based upon autonomy, diversity and human creativity.

As indicated by the above-mentioned Beatriz Preciado, "The sex of living beings is becoming a central focus of politics and governance... In this realm, sex - including the so-called sex organs, sexual practices, codes of masculinity and femininity, as well as the established normal and deviant sexual identities - enters into power relations and becomes a form of social control, acted out in the discourse concerning sex and the technologies that normalize sexual identities.”[3]³

Given this, now more than ever, taking back sexuality, demanding self-determination over one’s body and the visibility of dissident sexuality are powerful direct actions of resistance against heterosexism, patriarchy and capitalism.

As a result, the unprecedented contribution of this movement in particular is the way that it highlights the political and economic agenda of omnipresent sexist and heterosexist norms in all societies. In addition, it has revealed the ideological biases that underlie naturalistic interpretations of sexuality and which are reinvigorated and readapted throughout all cultures, places and religions at various points in time.

At this point in time, which is socially characterized by a proliferation of alternative thought and proposals countering the dominant model, bringing these contributions together can advance the formulation of integral changes, both personal and political, in response to demands from distinct arenas. In this regard, these interconnections between causes and social struggles, which characterize the present agenda of social movements in the region and around the world, will become further radicalized by including the struggle against sexism and heterosexism, becoming a new addition in this sense to the anti-capitalist and anti-patriarchal critique of the norms concerning the body and sexuality. In the end, all self-determined forms of sexuality are dissident.

Irene Leon, an Ecuadorian sociologist, is Director of FEDAEPS and a member of ALAI.

- Translated by ALAI from the article originally published in Spanish in: América Latina en Movimiento, ALAI, No. 420, "Sexualidades disidentes", May 2007.

http://alainet.org/publica/420.html