Breathe
By Diana Torres
It is no secret that the right wing is taking positions of power throughout the world as we have not seen for a long time. Human memory is fragile and what was unthinkable a few decades ago (extreme right-wing governments being voted by the citizens, even by the working class), is now the order of the day. The case of Argentina is the most flagrant. A territory that only a generation ago was under dictatorship, is now once again ruled by the same repressive ideology, annihilating freedoms, facha.
And how does this new rise of fascism affect LGTBIQ+ people? Well, in the same way that any kind of setback in the most basic human rights affects us: violence towards our very existence and hate crimes increase, bullying in schools, laws that benefit us are repealed, others that harm us are passed, and so on... The only good thing about living constantly on alert is that we do have a good memory, and somehow, we also have the predisposition for disaster: we are not caught in a curve, we expect everything.
A couple of weeks ago a drunk lady spilled a beer on the terrace and the blackboard of my business and when she finished she shouted "fucking lesbian", and left. This type of violence is something we are exposed to on a daily basis in the most everyday things like our jobs, and it escalates to the most serious issues such as having our lives taken away from us.
So it's not even about the right or the left. I am supposed to live in the capital of a country with a newly renewed progressive government, but it is the same country that almost has the highest rate of transfeminicide in the world (after Brazil). So to the question of whether I am worried about the increase of right-wing discourses and its greater presence and power in the world, I honestly don't know very well what to answer, because in reality I am always worried, whoever governs.
From my perspective, the only thing that would perhaps make me live a little calmer is if there were deep structural changes, starting from the most basic educational institutions, where they really bet on training people to exercise their freedom and not to turn them into servants of the system. Inclusive language should be implemented from primary school onwards, and children should be informed of all the possibilities they have with respect to their gender and orientation. And, above all, that no form of violence against diversity should be allowed, neither in schools, nor in homes, nor in the street. I believe that one of the biggest problems is that people are educated to exercise or receive violence to the point of naturalizing it. And if we are programmed for this game from an early age, how can we expect to eradicate it?
There is a long way to go and a long way to build so that people who are not heterosexual, or who do not conform to the gender assigned at birth, can really have a life free of violence and discrimination. The most annoying thing is that it is not a question of money, governments cannot use that excuse to delay or postpone the necessary changes in the thinking of an entire society to make it better for everyone; but it so happens that those who have the power to decide are precisely those who hold the fortunes. And that is what really makes any change difficult and even impossible.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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