Bilingual Newsletter
Claudia Maria Acevedo: Working to Save the Individual Identity of Guatemalan
Women
Claudia María Acevedo González,
General Coordinator of the Asociación de Lesbianas Liberadas or “Lesbirated.”
Nationality: Guatemalan.
Claudia
María Acevedo González is the general coordinator of the Asociación
de Lesbianas Liberadas or Lesbiradas ("Lesbirated"), an organization
that emerged from the efforts of twelve women who, with the participation
of other lesbians in Guatemala, have fought for the visibility of lesbianism
and the public defense of lesbians’ human rights.
1.) Can you tell me about your main breakthroughs and the challenges you think you will have to face?
I think our major breakthrough has been the chance of saying “Well, yes, let’s get together and start a fight to change this situation”. I believe this is the main challenge, since lesbianism in Guatemala not only is stigmatized but it is also dangerous to be a lesbian in a society that denies sexuality in itself.
2.) Could you tell us something about the violence against lesbians in Guatemala? Where and how it takes place?
At this point in time, we are in the process of creating a project to record all the human rights violations suffered by lesbians because, in most cases, they occur in private, that is, within the families. Therefore it is very difficult to gather evidence of the cases and demand the judiciary system to work on them. When the families realize that their daughters, sisters, or mothers are lesbians, in many cases the result is physical, sexual, and emotional violence, under any pretext other than their condition of lesbians. Furthermore, in some cases, there are sexual assaults or even murders, and we never get the chance to gather evidence to show them as crimes of hatred against sexual orientations.
3.) How open are authorities towards this situation that sexual minorities are facing in every community?
In Guatemala, there is a system of impunity that is quite strong because of a process of transition after the armed conflict. We have already lived eight years of this transition, trying to establish the foundations for a judiciary system in which due process is guaranteed, because the people are afraid of the judiciary system because of our history of war. It is harder for sexual diversity, because in Guatemala there are no homosexuals, the State literally denies their existence. Because of this, barriers are placed so that complaints are not investigated and the system of impunity becomes one where we do not have access to justice. There is also a policy of “social cleansing” intended to eliminate transvestites, lesbians and gays in the streets. Under this policy, for example, all murders of transvestites have been organized.
4.) If you are a lesbian in Guatemala and suffer a violation to your human rights, where do you go to?
In Guatemala, the human rights violation rate is quite high and that is why there are many organizations that work on these rights. When that happens, what we do is go to these human rights organizations, to the human rights office, or to the judiciary system.
5.) Tell us about your experience working with women and human rights organizations.
“Lesbirated” is in alliance with women, feminists, and human rights organizations. This process has been going on for many years because sexuality is a subject many people do not want to talk about, and it is even worst with lesbianism. All of the organizations accept us in a way, but sexual diversity is not necessarily in their agendas. It has been very hard for us, but these subjects are increasingly being accepted. We have worked more within the women movement, and now, in this occasion, within the human rights movement.
6.) Would you like to give a message to the people of sexual diversity living in Latin America?
Starting from the point that we all come from countries where sexuality is not something people talk about, and where rescuing the individual identity is not an issue being discussed, what I say is that I wish that one day all chains will be broken, and I invite you all to do it together.