1992 / First lesbian and gay conference for the Southern Cone: Lesbian-Gay Reflection, South America


The First Lesbian-Gay Reflection Conference, for the whole South American continent, was held in Canelo de Nos, a center in San Bernardo, Chile, between November 25th and 28th, 1992. The conference was organized by the America Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and its team in Chile, the Chile-Cuáquero Service Committee. Beginning in the 1960s, the AFSC had incorporated into their set of interests the rights of discriminated sexual minorities, and, receiving news of human rights violations for gays and lesbians in Brazil, Ecuador, and Colombia, proposed to open a wider inquiry into the rest of the region, so as to encourage collaboration across borders. Prior to the start of the conference, a diagnostic had been developed with the help of twenty-four LGBTQ organizations: the Comunidad Homosexual Argentina (CHA), Gays por los Derechos Civiles), Grupo ISIS (Group for the Investigation of Sexuality and Social Interaction), Las Lunas y las Otras, all from Argentina; Grupo Gay da Bahía, Associacao de Emancipacao Homossexual (ATOBA), Associacao de Gays Amigos de Nova Iguacú (AGANI), Grupo Gay do Amazonas, Rede de Informacao Lésbica Um Otro Olhar y Naunces, from Brasil; En Directo y Tal para Cual, from Ecuador; Ex Grupo Entendido, from Venezuela; Movimiento de Interacción Homosexual y Homosexuales Unidos, from Uruguay; el Movimiento Homosexual de Lima (MOHL) from Perú; a group formed with the support of SERPAJ, from Paraguay; and the collectives Lesbianas en Acción (LEA), Ayuquelén, the Yeguas del Apocalipsis––together with Corporación Chilena de Prevención del Sida, Taller Dyos, and Consuhomo y Liberho––from Chile. Many of these associations participated in the conference itself, among them the Yeguas del Apocalipsis and Ayuquelén. Besides promoting communication and solidarity among the associations, the conference ended with the reading of a manifesto that summarized the current situation and the on-going recognition of gays and lesbians. It resolved to work to include sexual orientation as one of the points of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as a path towards protecting the civil rights of sexual minorities and working on a continent-wide campaign against homophobia. A letter of protest was also written during the conference, to the Chilean Minister of the Interior, Enrique Correa,  denouncing the murder of two travestis in Santiago.


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