Pride: A story of blood, courage, and tons of rainbows
This article was originally published on June 16th of 2019 by Capslock Magazine, to reach out to Salvadorans and Latinxs around the world that are eager to read new narratives around the stories of the country their parents or grandparents left behind.
Dear reader:
Let’s make a quick social media exercise shall we? Don’t worry! It won’t be hard, I promise. Scroll down your News Feed on Facebook or swipe through your stories on Instagram. Notice something colorful, shining, and sort of daring on profile pictures, hashtags, and logos? No, it’s not Taylor Swift’s latest single or another cute kitty going viral! It’s the rainbow flag! LGBTQ’s symbol of acceptance, tolerance, diversity, love, and most important: pride. Behind such beautiful colors, a terrible story of violence and misinformation keeps taking place. You probably DO know this, but STILL, I want you to remember something important: the path for a more inclusive society has been written by the drops of blood shed by several innocent people. However, in times of pain and sorrow, colors have always united women and men for a common goal: the hope for a better place.
Have you ever wondered what exactly is Pride Month? Or why it’s always celebrated in June? Well, imagine a world where you are jailed for being affectionate with the person you love the most. Or because you look a certain way… a certain way the police don’t like. Similar to many recent events around the world, that was also the social climate of the 1960s in the United States, and the years before that. Violations of human rights, such as police brutality and public humiliation, made Marsha P. Johnson, a black trans woman, and other members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community rebel against unfair police raids at the Stonewall Inn gay bar, the morning of June 28th of 1969 in Manhattan, New York City (Garfield, 2018).
The uprising became a catalyst for an emerging gay rights movement, nurtured by the efforts of the civil rights movement and the women’s rights movement. Members held protests, met with political leaders, and interrupted public meetings to hold leaders accountable. A year after the Stonewall riots, the nation’s first Gay Pride marches were held in Chicago and Los Angeles. (Archie & Griggs, 2018). In 1971, Gay Pride marches took place in Boston, Dallas, Milwaukee, London, Paris, West Berlin, and Stockholm. By 1972 the participating cities included Atlanta, Brighton, Buffalo, Detroit, Washington D.C., Miami, and Philadelphia, as well as San Francisco (Armstrong & Crage, 2006).
Brenda Howard, a bisexual New York activist nicknamed the “Mother of Pride,” organized the first Pride Parade with the hopes of commemorating the first anniversary of the Stonewall uprisings (Belonsky, 2007). Since then, every June 28th, or the last weekend of June, celebrations such as pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia, and concerts are held around the United States and the rest of the world. The purpose of this commemorative month is to recognize the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally (Library of Congress, 2019).
I’m from El Salvador, the smallest, yet most populated country in Central America (World Bank, 2019). Have you heard from it? We are quite well known for our amazing beaches, our tropical volcanoes, and our delicious food, you can actually see Mia and Sebastian from La La Land eating Salvadoran pupusas in LA. Oh right! We are also known of course for the violent havoc wreaked by gangs daily. But, did you know El Salvador — as well as the rest of Central American countries — celebrates Pride Month?
In a place where machismo, conservative religious beliefs, and high violence rates are rooted in the core of its culture, El Salvador struggles with discrimination and violence against the LGBTQ community. According to the Salvadoran digital newspaper El Faro, from 1995 through 2015, 526 hate crimes have been registered against members of this community; none of them have ever been taken to legal court, nor have ever been resolved (Rauda, 2017). As the organization Transgender Europe states in a study, Latin America represents 78% of homicides against the LGBTQ community within the Americas (Calderón, 2018).
The first Pride Parade was celebrated in El Salvador on June 28th of 1997. The event was organized by Asociación Entre Amigos, one of the first LGBTQ groups that started working in 1994, focusing on the fight for and the promotion of equal rights for the community. The date served as a homage to the XVIII Anniversary of the unresolved killings of a dozen of transvestites and sex workers, who were brutally raped and murdered by groups of soldiers from the Bracamonte battalion, in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador (elsalvadorg.com, 2009).
Since then, Pride Parade has taken place in the capital, with the support of local gay bars, non-governmental organizations, civil rights movements, policemen, media, and the general public, amongst others. As of 2017, 16 organizations have joined forces to become the Federación Salvadoreña LGBTI (Salvadoran LGBTI Federation) and fight against violence and inequality. Organizations like Colectivo Normal, AMATE El Salvador, and PRIDESV are some of the 16 organizations that work for the alliance since (Rauda, 2017).
Have you ever heard of Karla Avelar? The first trans-Salvadoran woman nominated as a finalist for the Martin Ennals Award for her work as a trans activist with her project COMCAVI TRANS? Or did you know about the Salvadoran-Swiss lawyer and LGBT activist Herman Duarte who was named one of the Financial Times’ Top 50 LGBT+ Future Leader the same year? What about Mario Salinas, the first openly gay mayor of a town from El Salvador living with HIV? Such stories serve as inspiration and light for members of this community.
Yes, El Salvador might have a lot of challenges that need tackling. Issues such as violence and discrimination, but also access to public health treatments, legal acknowledgment of true identities, and accountability of justice, to name a few. However, something is in fact changing! Visibility for the community keeps growing with every effort spun.
Why Pride now more than ever? Because for groups of people who have been oppressed, marginalized, discriminated against, and targeted for bullying, harassment, and violence, pride is key. Pride is a group of people standing together and affirming their self-worth, their history and accomplishments, their capabilities, dignity, and their visibility. It is a vocal and powerful statement to themselves and the world that they too deserve to be treated with respect and equity (ADL, 2019).
Because in a world where it is so hard to love and accept yourself, feeling proud of who you are can be healing. Because every human being deserves the pride of being free and empowered. Because love, one of the things that makes us more human, always wins. And in the words of famously outspoken LGBTQ activist and awarded artist Lady Gaga:
“Don’t hide yourself in regret /
Just love yourself, and you’re set /
I’m on the right track, baby /
I was born this way.”
