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Sociability, Secrets, and Identities: Key Issues in Sexual Politics in Latin America
- University of Pittsburgh Press
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Sociability, Secrets, and Identities Key Issues in Sexual Politics in Latin America Mario Pecheny I L A, as elsewhere, gays and lesbians have pursued political strategies to redefine their subordinate status. I will discuss the political claims of these sexual minorities, which are formulated in the name of rights as part of the struggle to include issues of sexual and intimate relationships in a broader demand for full and equal citizenship. My central hypothesis is that political practices aimed at reverting the subordination of homosexuality are not limited to the boundaries of formal politics —such as legislation and public policies—but are also carried out in intermediate realms associated with the particular forms of sociability and social relationships of homosexual individuals. Describing the modes of sociability of homosexuals whose identities may be qualified as discrete/discreet,₁ I refer to both social and personal relationships among homosexuals and how they interact with nonhomosexuals. Based on previous research done in Argentina, I can affirm that these modes of sociability characterize the lives of most nonheterosexuals, especially among middle-class persons. These modes of sociability affect the political strategies of the sexual minorities’ social movement. 102 Secrets and Identity Homosexuality is a secret that shapes the identity and personal relationships of homosexual individuals. Here I define homosexuality as the tendency to seek sensual pleasure by means of physical contact with people of the same sex (Dover , ). Not every culture has the notion of homosexuality, nor do all those who have had sexual encounters with people of the same sex consider themselves homosexual. An identitarian homosexual individual is someone who considers that having desire for and/or sex with and/or loving relationships with people of the same sex defines his or her own identity to some degree. In principle, this identitarian dimension is acknowledged to oneself and may or may not be assumed publicly. Homosexual identification is not always adopted autonomously. In fact, since the invention of the term homosexual at end of the nineteenth century, diverse specialists have attributed this identification heteronomously.³ Numerous authors doubt that the medical categorization can define a social identity and prefer the term gay or none at all (Butler , Foucault ). In this work, when I speak of homosexuals, I refer only to people that feel desire toward those of their same sex, without attempting to adopt the physical appearance of the opposite sex, as in the case of transgender people. The term homosexual as both noun and adjective is used generically, while gay and lesbian are used more precisely to refer to homosexual individuals that are somewhat open about their sexual orientation. In our society, homosexuality is a dimension of one’s personality that constitutes a basis for stigmatization, discrimination, and exclusion (Parker and Aggleton ). This dimension has two features that are crucial to our discussion: on one hand, homosexuality is not generally evident to others, since it can hidden relatively easily; on the other hand, it is a condition that is not shared by the core group of primary socialization formed by family, childhood friends, etc. That is, a child or adolescent who will lead a homosexual life is customarily raised in a heterosexual atmosphere. The first feature, nonevidence, allows individuals to control information about their sexuality depending on different interlocutors, places, and times. In a context where homosexuals face discrimination, the capacity to impersonate serves as protection . People with different skin color lack this recourse in a racist context. The second feature, the fact that the primary unit of socialization does not share the stigmatized condition, denotes a problem unique to homosexual individuals. This differentiates them from members of other discriminated-against categories that form social groups, such as Jews in an anti-Semitic context. If, for example, a Jewish boy is tormented at school, he will probably find love and material support in his family and close friends. On the other hand, an adolescent who discovers desire for people of the same sex and experiences anguish or fear, not only may not find supSociability , Secrets, and Identities / 103 [3.83.187.36] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 14:57 GMT) port in family and friends, but may feel this anguish or fear precisely because of the possibility of being rejected by the primary social group. Research conducted in Argentina (Kornblit, Pecheny, and Vujosevich ) and other countries shows that the process of formation of one’s personal identity regarding “relevant or significant...