Summary of Event
Although Mexican women have played active roles during key moments in the country’s history (for example, the War of Independence, the Mexican Revolution), they could not vote until 1947 and could not run for office until 1953. Women who loved women were often closeted and circumspect. One example is the famed poet, nun, and scholar Sor Juana Inéz de la Cruz, who wrote love poems dedicated to several female viceregal mentors. Some women who might in the past be thought of as lesbian might today be thought of as transgender, like the notable Amelia (Amelio) Robles, who fought in the Mexican Revolution. Amelio, as she preferred to be called, dressed in male clothing and was a fierce combatant.
Gay Mexicans also have been generally closeted. Some remembered the 1901 scandal of “Los 41,” forty-one being the number of gay men arrested at a private ball hosted by a politician. Most lesbians and gays had been closeted until the 1970’s. In 1971, Frente de Liberación Homosexual, the first mixed gender LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) group in Mexico, was formed in Mexico City. While some lesbians preferred to work in mixed gender groups, many who objected to the sexism in those groups and those who had been influenced by feminism, chose to form women-only groups.
Over the decades, lesbians created groups to meet a variety of interests and needs, groups such as ácratas, who were separatists; Lesbos (1977); Oikabeth (a leftist progressive group that had several incarnations); Oasis (a separatist group); La Comuna de las Lesbianas Morelenses (a living collective formed in the 1980’s); MULA (Mujeres Urgidas de un Lesbianismo Auténtico) in 1984; and a lesbian mothers group called GRUMALE (1986). Patlatonalli (1986) is still active as is El Closet de Sor Juana (1992), a lesbian-feminist activist group named after Sor Juana Inéz de la Cruz. Groups from the 1990’s include Telemanita (1991), Musas de Metal (1995), and Lesbianas Zapatistas (1997).
At the International Women’s Year Conference held in Mexico in 1975, lesbians were present but not on the program. A workshop had been hastily arranged, however, after an Australian woman demanded that the subject be part of the conference. Mexican lesbian activist Nancy Cárdenas wrote a brief statement that was read at the meeting. In 1978, the first Mexican lesbian conference was held at Cárdenas’s home. Four years later, the first Gay Pride March in Mexico took place in Mexico City.
Almost twenty years later, in April of 2003, the Mexican parliament passed legislation to prevent and eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation and declared that sexual preference was a protected class. A government office was also created to investigate cases of discrimination perpetrated by public officers. By 2017, most countries in Latin America had laws that provided national protection on the basis of sexual orientation. Some of the credit for the landmark Mexican law goes to Patria Jiménez Flores, the first out lesbian or gay person elected to the Mexican Federal Congress (1997).
Elsa Patria Jiménez Flores, the ninth of ten children, was born in 1957 in San Luis Potosi, México. She came out publicly when she was sixteen, and in the late 1970’s she joined the mixed gender lesbian and gay movement. During the years in which Flores struggled with her family’s negative reaction to her sexuality, the famed singer and lesbian, Chavela Vargas, became her surrogate parent.
In 1982, Claudia Hinojosa, a woman named Guadalupe, and two gay men ran for seats in the Mexican congress. Knowing they would not win, they nevertheless ran as out lesbian and gay candidates because they knew that their mere presence as out candidates would generate discussion and raise awareness. (American José Sarria had run for a seat on the San Francisco board of supervisors in 1961 as well, also knowing his presence would have some political effect.)
For the next fifteen years, Flores networked with both lesbian and mixed gender groups. The first Encuentro de Lesbianas took place in Cuernavaca, Morelos, in October of 1987, with more than two hundred women in attendance from Latin American countries and the United States. Prior to that conference, a national lesbian coordinating meeting took place with twelve Mexican lesbian and feminist organizations. In 1991, Flores stood as a candidate for the Revolutionary Workers Party along with Claudia Colimoro, a sex worker. Again, although knowing they would not win, they knew that their candidacy would raise awareness and energize sectors of the LGBTI movement in Mexico.
In 1997, Flores ran for a seat in the Mexican congress as a candidate for the Democratic Revolutionary Party. When her party won a certain percentage of the votes in Mexico City, they won the right to appoint a number of candidates to the congress, and Flores was selected. During her time as a diputada (deputy), Flores helped change the term “homosexuality” to “sexual practices” in regulations related to the corruption of minors in Article 201 of Mexico’s penal code. She sponsored legislation to prohibit the media from revealing the names of victims of sexual crimes. She worked against hate crimes, violations of civil and human rights, and domestic violence. She worked on behalf of sexuality education and HIV-AIDS awareness and supported peace negotiations with the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas, Mexico. Lesbians and gays were invited to participate in the first Zapatista Conference (1994), where they presented various proposals.
In 2000, Enoé Uranga was elected to the legislative assembly of the capital city of Mexico and was appointed president of the human rights commission. She sponsored a convivencia (domestic partnership) law, which, although endorsed by diverse groups, was not acted upon by the Mexican congress.
In 2003, México Posible (M.P.), a new political party, sponsored four gay and lesbian candidates, including drag queen Glenda in Monterrey and transgender Amaranta (formerly Jorge) Gómez in Juchitán. Gómez, who helped to found México Posible, is also the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Although M.P. candidates did not win, their candidacy raised awareness, especially in the provinces.
During her tenure in the assembly, Flores received criticism from lesbians who perceived her as being expedient, allying with gays or lesbians depending on what the situation required. The lesbian organization she helped to found, El Closet de Sor Juana, was criticized by some for not participating in the annual dyke marches. Yet the personable politician gathered enough support from a variety of sectors to be elected in 2006 as the first out lesbian or gay individual in the Mexican senate.