Breathe
By Erica Salinas, social activist.
I am a survivor of conversion "therapy". I never knew what had happened to me until I started researching to develop the script for my short film "Para:Sarah", all that time I kept thinking that what they had done to me was right and that I was the one who was wrong, at that time I didn't know that I had been a victim of an ECOSIG (Effort to Correct Sexual Orientation and/or Gender Identity).
That is why I consider it so important that May 17, 2014 has been declared by presidential decree in Mexico the National Day for the Fight against Homophobia, based on the fact that on that same day but in 1990 the General Assembly of the World Health Organization eliminated homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses and from there it was institutionalized in various countries to make visible this fight against discrimination and violence against LGBT+ people.
However, despite the fact that 34 years ago homophobia and transphobia were no longer considered illnesses, as of today, according to the results of the survey conducted by INEGI (ENDISEG), half a million people have been victims of these ECOSIG. That is why the organization Yaaj Mexico began six years ago its struggle to ban them in Mexico and last April 26 (day of lesbian visibility, by the way), the Senate of the Republic approved its prohibition and we managed to become a spearhead in Latin America. Because we can finally tell everyone that this is torture, that these "therapies" are very wrong, that they are very dangerous because they cause irreparable damage and therefore should be considered a crime.
This shows us how civil society has been promoting and working together with all the political actors needed to make these changes, but this has been something very different from what has been experienced in human rights legislative matters, because they usually come from the Senate or the Chamber of Deputies and then the states are harmonized. But this has been a struggle that comes from below and it is a struggle that is all over the country, with hundreds of thousands of activists and people and survivors and victims who are fighting, marching in the streets, pushing in the States, led by the organization Yaaj Mexico who worked hand in hand with Genaro Lozano and Senators Citlalli Hernandez, Alejandra Lagunes and Patricia Mercado.
And that is why it was historic, this was achieved by the organized civil society, and we have made it clear that we are not a minority, we are hundreds, thousands and even millions of families, that we are very well organized, prepared, united, because united is how this strength that we have has been demonstrated.
And that yes, thanks to the political wills that do their work, this transformation, this revolution, has been achieved, and we have been able, millions of people, to celebrate this achievement, that this struggle that began as a day to commemorate today becomes a law that protects dissident sexualities.
Because Mexico will no longer be the same after this, because our community will no longer be that stigmatized community of sick people and criminals, we have said it clearly, we have said it loudly, we are people worthy of rights and worthy of loving and being loved, and we achieve that among all of us, being strong, being united, being a community, being a family.
So this day of the fight against homophobia, there is nothing left but to thank all the activists who gave their lives for our rights, for those who still give their all so that today we can exist and live in freedom, thank you very much, to the families that support, to the chosen ones and those of blood, to all the allies, and thanks also to all the people who have come out to march, because this is the result of a struggle that began in the streets, and reached our constitution.
I would like to believe that this would be enough, but unfortunately we know that it is not, as stated by Ivan Tagle, this is a first big step, which allows us to start working on public policies that help us to create this fair society free of discrimination, but at the same time we also have to work on the cultural side, I also take this opportunity to call on creators, filmmakers and scriptwriters to please see this diversity and put it in their films, not only as mockery and scorn, not only from prejudice, but to break these stereotypes and be able to see ourselves on the screens.
It is necessary to begin to see ourselves represented with dignity in the cultural media, in the artistic media, in cinema, television, and in all these forms of expression that we have as artists, to have this ethics and responsibility to include the valuable diversity that makes this Mexico so human, so diverse, and above all to remember when creating that there are queer children and adolescents who are watching these films or these artistic expressions, what story are we telling them of their possible future?
To eliminate homophobia is a daily work, from the laws, from the language, from what we create, remembering that heterosexuality is not the only way to exist, as Chimamanda Ngozi tells us in her book "The danger of the unique history", but we will talk about that in the next column.
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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