© Leandro Teysseire
Mara Brawer’s militancy for LGBT rights receives fair recognition.
“In the plot of diversity, being a lesbian exposes a strong invisibility due to the double condition of being women and lesbians”reflects the national deputy for the Front of All Mara Brawer –re-elected in that position in 2019 after serving her first term between 2011 and 2015–, shortly before being recognized as an activist in the lesbian world in Argentina. “Patriarchy crosses all sectors – explains Brawer -, and the lack of a man in that scene is unbearable for themthere are many reasons why this is so, but in the week of Lesbian Visibility, and with a view to 8M, this recognition of people and organizations that work for lesbian visibility shows a new look from the State, from the government and from society, about a sector that carries a history of struggles that needed to be made visible”.
Her words refer to the act that will take place within the framework of the third edition of the event We move the world –organized by the Ministry of Women and Diversity and the Ministry of Culture–, this Saturday at 2:00 p.m., in the Hall of CCK Honor. There the “Lesbian Pride Recognition” will be delivered to a series of organizations and activists, including Mara Brawer, whose persistent work became precisely in the recognition of society, in the face of sexual diversity, especially towards lesbian women, that “double condition” that the deputy points out in the interview with Page 12.
The event, organized by the Undersecretary for Diversity Policies in charge of Alba Rueda from the Ministry of Women, commemorates the moment in which being a lesbian assumes a leading role in Argentine politics: it marks the tragic day on which Natalia “Pepa” Gaitán was murdered by her girlfriend’s stepfatheron March 7, 2010. From the struggle of LGBT groups and Human Rights organizations, the date establishes the commemoration of the Day of Lesbian Visibility in Argentina.
This year, the date will be linked to the claim for the acquittal of Eva Analía “Higui” de Jesús, who must face a trial for “simple homicide”. The process begins on March 15 in the Oral Court of San Martín. There “Higui” will be judged for having defended herself from a group of men who attacked her, tried to rape her and beat her to death. This attack occurred in 2016, on the symbolic day in October on which Mother’s Day is celebrated in Argentina.
Hence, Brawer’s words assume a sociopolitical character when he points out: “It is the first time that a government has done such an act”. He refers to the recognition that he will receive together with Greta Pena, Romina Pereyra, Luciana Sánchez, Adriana Carrasco, Andrea Rivas, Florencia Gemetro, Gabriela Bacin, Graciela Balestra, Magui Fernández, Mónica Santino, Gabriela Borreli, Norma Castillo, Laura Olivier, Florencia Paltrinieri and of course, together with “Higui” de Jesús. “It is a recognition of lesbians who have historically been attacked by the patriarchy, that is why the murder of Pepa Gaitán is emblematic and that is why the cruelty with Higui was so fierce”, says the deputy, also a graduate in psychology. “Higui killed one of the guys who harassed her and her case expresses the double invisibility of the patriarchy that seeks to dominate women’s bodies,” she emphasizes.
–How do you take this recognition, personally and politically?
–The personal is political. As a woman in politics, visibility and respect mobilize me, move my history and my affections. On the other hand, it gives me enormous pride for the fight that all of us who are in this recognition and many others, the entire women’s and diversity movement, gave.
–What moments of your personal life resonate with this act?
–The times when I was a member of the JP and I really had to have a double life, because I was in the Basic Unit and then I met the girls, and I had an intense love activity, an affective life of indelible ties and beautiful stories . But in militancy none of that was visible. On top of that, she was a grade teacher. There were two worlds and in that distortion one suffers, because the gaze of the other does not give you back who you are. Although it never returns the real to you, in this case the distance is greater. They don’t see you as you are, that look tells you “you’re alone”, because it sees you as “alone”, when if something happened in my life it was that I wasn’t alone.
–How was the process by which you managed to unite those two lives?
–It was until I decided to take the step, because I suffered a lot, my adolescence and my early youth were of desperate suffering. I felt that it expelled me from the world. Until I made the decision. Because I would die or I would succeed, but I was not going to stay in the middle. We built the strength to go through this process among all my friends. Later, the possibility of making it public was given to me by Néstor and Cristina. Because, from feeling that I was looked at as something bad and despicable, to entering the Casa Rosada and being able to get married if I wanted, and talk about loves and heartbreaks and present myself as I am, it was thanks to that, and to the women’s and diversity movement, obviously .
–There is also recognition of organizations…
–The importance of recognizing institutions marks an era, because those of us who began to be able to live lesbianism at the beginning of democracy, had in feminist and lesbian organizations such as Lugar de mujer, Las fulanas or La casa del Encuentro, a network that then it is sustained in the decision of Néstor and Cristina to grant rights, to equalize rights. That is why this recognition is so important within the framework of all the activities organized by the ministries in relation to lesbian visibility.
–Do you consider that today society assumes this transformation?
–I think that once the board gave the affirmative in the Senate and equal marriage became law, Argentine society was different. But not only because gays and lesbians had the right to marry, but because all Argentines were freer and more respectful. So today, I am not saying that there is no resistance, that is why they continue to beat the girls, but it was an incredibly virtuous process, for something if we see today the deputies, and senators who voted against, we see that now they are real militants for rights to equality. They really changed. Politics, Argentine society grew a lot, they opened up to the malls.
–What are the pending, in this sense, from your perspective?
–There are always pending and there are issues that cross social classes, it is not the same to be gay or lesbian or trans, in groups of one economic situation or another, in a town or in a city, in some segments it becomes more difficult . The goal is to continue working on visibility and gender equality.