Short History of Gay
Guatemala
Guatemala A republic in
Central America with the
third largest area in the
region, Guatemala is, after
Mexico, the largest of the
Central American countries
in population, with about
11.5 million people.
Homosexuality was made
illegal by the Spanish
conquest (1524). It was
decriminalized in the
nineteenth century, but it
was not until the 1960s and
1980s that more open-minded
attitudes toward
homosexuality began to
appear within Guatemalan
society as a whole.
The Colonial Period
After the Spanish conquest,
the administrative entity
called Captaincy General of
Guatemala comprised an area
that today comprehends six
countries (Belize, Costa
Rica, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, and
Nicaragua). The Spaniards
condemned the same-sex
sexual practices that were
common among many of the
Mayan peoples and
promulgated the Christian
sexual ethic that only
heterosexual relations in
marriage were acceptable
sexual behavior.
The Spanish colonial period
ended in 1821, but the
cultural hegemony of the
Catholic Church remained
until 1871, when a liberal
revolution took place.
Through all the "ecclesiastical
period," homosexuality was
illegal and persecuted under
statutes forbidding "sodomy"
or "pecado nefando." The law
covered both male and female
homosexual acts, but only
male cases were indicted.
Female homosexuality was
invisible to the male-centered
establishment.
Although homosexual acts
were illegal, the penalties
were rather mild. Natives
were regarded as minors
under the law, and thus they
were not actually tried for
sexual offenses. Instead,
they were subjected to
sermons and lectures.
The more common offenders
during this period were
friars and priests, but if
they were sentenced for
violating these statutes (which
very seldom happened), their
jail terms of six months to
four years were served in
their monasteries or
religious houses, not in
secular prisons.
The Revolution of
1871
In 1871 a vast
reorganization of the
Guatemalan state began. The
state abandoned the colonial
discourse and changed the
laws that had been dictated
by the Catholic Church.
French ideas and concepts
replaced the old ones. As
part of this revolution,
homosexuality was
decriminalized on the
constitutional grounds that
private sexual acts between
consenting adults were not
the concern of the state.
The law changed, but a
culture that despised
homosexuals and
homosexuality remained for
many decades. Denigrating
jokes about homosexual
relations were common in
families and even in the
newspapers.
It was not until the late
1930s that a noted lesbian,
Julia Quiñones, began a
cultural club composed of
gay men and herself. The
activities of this group
were very discreet,
consisting mostly of reading
and discussing poetry.
Nevertheless, it was a
beginning.
The 1950s and 1960s
In the 1950s, the attitudes
of Guatemalan society began
to change. After the
surgical sex-change of
Christine Jorgensen in the
winter of 1952-1953, a timid
discussion of sex in general
began to take place in the
media. The most important of
the newspapers, El
Imparcial, published for
some months a weekly page
about the "third sex."
This opening was expanded
during the presidential
tenure (1958-1963) of
General Miguel Ydigoras, who
appointed some noted
homosexuals to important
administrative offices.
From the AIDS Panic
to Today
The AIDS epidemic of the
early 1980s found the
Guatemalan glbtq community
without any cultural,
social, or political
organizations. At that time
there really was no glbtq
community. Moreover, the
AIDS pandemic had a very
negative effect on attitudes
toward homosexuality.
However, in the 1990s a few
political organizations
appeared. The most
significant of these was the
Colectivo Gay de Guatemala
that in October 2000 changed
its name to Guatemalan Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual,
Transsexual and Transgender
Community. It has
subsequently grown to become
an important voice in
Guatemala.
However, despite this new
political voice, crimes
against homosexuals continue
to be a serious problem.
Moreover, they do not
receive the same attention
from the authorities that
other crimes do. Several
transvestites were murdered,
and the crimes were not
seriously investigated by
the police.
Thanks to the valiant
struggle of activists to
counter a long tradition of
intolerance and machismo,
Nicaragua now has a more
visible glbtq community than
ever before.
Bibliography
-Morales, Oscar. Al final
del arcoiris. Guatemala City:
Editorial Oscar de León
Palacios, 2003.
-Whitam, Frederick L. Male
Homosexuality in Four
Societies: Brazil,
Guatemala, the Philippines,
and the United States. New
York: Praeger, 1986. |
