ARGENTINA: New Open-mindedness on Sexuality Has Its Limits

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Viviana Alonso

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 6 2004 (IPS) - Although more and more people in Argentina say they are in favour of the legalisation of abortion, the free distribution of birth control, and access to tubal ligations free of charge, social prejudice against sexual minorities remains difficult to uproot.

The new open-mindedness in this heavily Roman Catholic country, which paved the way for passage of a law on reproductive health and a Buenos Aires city statute legalising same-sex civil unions, has not yet done away with the discrimination suffered by homosexuals and transvestites, who are still frequent victims of hate crimes.

”In Buenos Aires, an enormous stride was made in the recognition of the rights of homosexual individuals and couples, but transvestites suffer constant discrimination: they are beaten, tortured and raped by the police, who also steal their money,” María Laura, the head of the Argentine Homosexual Community (CHA), told IPS.

”Every year, there are dozens of murders of transvestites that go unreported because it is well-known that the police don’t investigate (such killings),” she said. ”Most of the cases involve hate crimes.”

Hilda Habichayn, the director of the master’s programme ”Power and Society from a Gender Perspective” at the National University in the city of Rosario, says ”there is a false openness with respect to the rights of the so-called sexual minorities.”

”A paradigm of ‘normal’ and accepted sexuality, the heterosexual relationship, still prevails,” she told IPS.

Habichayn said that ”in theory, people accept the existence of these other expressions of sexuality, but when they have to coexist with them, the intolerance resurges.”

María Laura described the conditions facing ”transvestites in Argentina, where they are kicked out of their families and face obstacles when they want to study or work.

”In many cases, these circumstances force them into prostitution, which is the only activity that society allows them, but for which it condemns and marginalises them at the same time,” said the activist.

The CHA sees as a great achievement the fact that Congress is discussing an amendment of the ”law on the exercise of constitutional rights and guarantees”, to include a specific prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

In December 2002, the Buenos Aires city council legalised same-sex civil unions, and similar statutes are being debated in four other districts in Argentina.

In 2002, Congress also passed a law on sexual and reproductive health which, although it has broad social support, continues to face the opposition of conservative and religious groups that have repeatedly turned to the courts to try to get it overturned.

The new statutes and laws express a new openness in society that began to be seen with greater intensity in the 1990s, after a transitional period that followed the bloody 1976-1983 dictatorship.

The full-blown economic crisis that followed several years of recession, the spread of HIV/AIDS, and the steady rise in teenage pregnancies have further fueled the new open-mindedness.

”Those were important factors in the change, as was the work done with the media and with women’s groups,” the head of the Foundation for Women’s Studies and Research (FEIM), Mabel Bianco, said in an interview with IPS.

Habichayn agreed. ”One interesting phenomenon,” she said, ”was the strength and influence of non-governmental organisations, especially the women’s and feminist movements, which were often a decisive factor in bringing about change by fighting the retrograde assaults aimed at rolling the clock back.”

The new sense of openness was reflected in a survey carried out last year by FEIM, the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) – a local human rights group – and the Centre for Studies on the State and Society (CEDES).

The poll, which interviewed 303 Buenos Aires residents, attempted to gauge the level of social support for the new policies on reproductive health.

”The results of the survey conducted last year show overwhelming support by the population for the objectives of the National Programme of Sexual and Reproductive Health,” CEDES researcher Mónica Petracci commented to IPS.

The government Programme focuses on prevention of HIV/AIDS and unwanted and teenage pregnancy, and on the free distribution of contraceptives.

A full 97 percent of respondents said they were in favour of family planning and the right of women and men to choose how many children they want, and 91 percent agreed that in cases of rape, women should be able to take a pill that would keep them from getting pregnant.

With respect to adolescents between the ages of 12 and 14, 99 percent of respondents said they should have access to information on birth control, and 93 percent said they should have access to contraceptives if they are sexually active.

In the case of teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 17, there was unanimous agreement that they should have access to information, while 98 percent said they should have access to birth control as well.

Meanwhile, 91 percent said the health services should provide free contraceptives, especially the intrauterine device (IUD), and a similar proportion said women should be able to request tubal ligation (female sterilisation) free of charge from the Buenos Aires city health services.

When asked about sex education, 99 percent said it should form part of the secondary school curriculum, and 89 percent said it should be included in the primary school curriculum. In addition, 97 percent of those interviewed agreed that sex education would help young people enjoy a safe and responsible sex life.

”A majority of those interviewed also agreed that abortion should be decriminalised,” said Petracci, who clarified, however, that ”this does not mean they approve of it in just any kind of situation.”

Back-alley abortions claim the lives of at least 400 women a year, mainly from lower socioeconomic strata, in this country of 38 million, where abortion is illegal.

People are in favour of the legalisation of abortion ”in situations involving rape, risks to the pregnant woman’s physical health, and, to a lesser extent, to her emotional health. But support drops in situations involving what could be called a woman’s right to make her own decisions,” she added.

Bianco pointed out that ten years ago, 78 percent of respondents to a 1994 survey were in favour of the legalisation of abortion, including 20 percent who said it should be legal in all cases and 58 percent who said it should be legal ”only in cases of rape, deformities of the fetus, and other problems,” she said.

Habichayn underlined that ”it is one thing to express one’s views on reproductive rights, understood as the right to control one’s own fertility by using techniques to regulate it, and it is another to express one’s opinion on the right to make a free decision on whether to have an abortion.

”Politicians in general continue to cover their backs with respect to that issue, due to electoral reasons, while health professionals are reluctant to commit themselves, which means we women once again find ourselves on our own in this,” she said.

”Women continue to be criminalised as the only ones responsible for unwanted pregnancies or abortions,” Habichayn complained.

In other words, ”there is majority support for the National Programme on Reproductive Health, which does not mean, however, that the ordinances and measures adopted with respect to sexuality enjoy the same support,” she concluded.