Getting Hitched in Buenos Aires
Behind the headlines: Members of Argentina's foremost gay rights group discuss how they made Buenos Aires the first South American city to recognize civil unions
The Advocate, February 4, 2003

On December 13, in the midst of a massive social justice movement, Buenos Aires became the first city in Latin America to declare civil union rights for gay and lesbian couples. The 18-year-old activist group Comunidad Homosexual Argentina led the campaign to allow both gay and straight couples who have been together for at least two years to get the same health insurance, hospital visitation rights, and pension benefits that married couples get. The law recognizes the civil union of gay couples but does not term the union a marriage. The Advocate met up with CHA president César Cigliutti, secretary Marcelo Sunthein, and legal adviser Pedro Paradiso in the group¹s communal loft in Buenos Aires, with coffee, croissants, and cigarettes served for breakfast. - Austin Bunn

How did you decide to fight for civil unions?
Cigliutti: The cruelty of the police, here in Buenos Aires and in the whole country, is stunning, particularly with respect to transvestites. Last year, within Buenos Aires, the police detained more than 30 transvestites a night. So we had been trying to develop a legislative strategy about how to fight this. Then two years ago, we were at this well-known confitería [a type of cafe] called El Olmo, and we decided it was time to push forward the idea of civil unions in Buenos Aires.
Sunthein : CHA was created in a confitería [as well]. Everything important takes place at confiterías. Even Stonewall, right?

It couldn't have been easy.
Cigliutti: When we presented the project to the city's commission on human rights‹the first official step‹we contacted the media so that they would be there. We didn't know at the time that the commission didn't want to consider the project at all. But with all the media around, they had to. Still, a year and a half passed [before the council voted] because they put up absolutely every bureaucratic obstacle you can imagine.
Sunthein: We used maximum pressure. We did escraches [noisy direct action protests]. We threatened that if they didn't vote, we would do other nonviolent mobilizations, like chanting "Shame" or "Forgotten Vote." The legislators got so scared that they had one of the longest sessions in recent history‹almost 18 hours uninterrupted from 1 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. the next day. When they finally came out to talk to the press, they said that this was the most profoundly debated issue they had had in the past two years. On that point, [on December 18] the legislature of Buenos Aires gave CHA a prize for the quality of our work.

The law is actually drafted to help gay and straight couples‹why was that important?
Sunthein: Because to create a civil union law just for gays, lesbians, and transsexuals is to create a "blacklist"‹a register of homosexuals. Given the history of Argentina under dictatorship of the 1970s, that's very dangerous.

CHA worked for civil unions without the help of national or international gay rights organizations. Why?
Sunthein: Even though the gay community in Argentina is one of the oldest and biggest in Latin America, it's one of the least recognized. We've had a really minimal relationship with the international groups. We tracked down the biggest financiers to help us‹the same five people that everybody knows‹but we were told that there isn't money to support "this kind of activism." If there's not money to support "this kind of activism," what kind of activism does deserve it?
Paradiso: There are hundreds of organizations in Latin America, but we are all facing the same problem, which is this: South America is not first in the eyes of people who support this work. It's last. The money for the campaign was all ours, what we earned from our work. And right now only half of us are employed.

Argentina is in the middle of an economic and social crisis. Were you ever told by politicians or the public, "Not now?"
Paradiso: Yes. But at the same time, the year of protests has really brought out in Argentina the idea of social justice. Argentineans have taken notice that the promise of the "First World" that we were sold is totally false. The middle class, with their savings vanishing in the banks, understood how the state can meddle in your private life in a way that gay people have been living with for years.

If you had to advise another group in another South American city, what would you say?
Cigliutti: You can't leave anything to anyone else. We had to make sure somebody was worrying about every stage of the law because the project kept falling apart. We also stayed independent and never negotiated with anybody. Many political parties wanted to represent the law as theirs, but we said, "Thank you, but no."

Your organization also has no hierarchy.
Cigliutti: If anything, [as president] I'm the errand boy. I'm the slave.

So what happens next?
Paradiso: We've got this concrete result, but it's never going to mean anything until each one of us takes advantage of our rights. Otherwise, the law will just be this empty declaration, an unused principle.

The law has just taken effect. Has anybody taken advantage of it?
Cigliutti: He has [smiling, pointing at Sunthein].
Sunthein: So has he [smiling, pointing at Cigliutti].
Paradiso: They're a couple.