I never met Cesitar. At a meeting of
religious leaders on the issue of If
homosexuality, his father described
him to us as he showed us his picture. arrestE
The contrast was curious. While we dis- day
cussed the subject in a technical, almost
sanitized manner, Cesitar’s father was spend
passionate and torn by emotion as he
described his son-a brilliant young or r
man who, among many other things,
was homosexual. I say was because will
Cesitar could not resist the social pres-
sures against his homosexuality, and as the discr
a result, took his own life. In tears, his We SU1
father addressed our group of religious
leaders: “Do something. This prejudice
mucd
cannot continue. It is a matter of life or
death.” That day, the urgency of the appare
struggle against the oppression of
homosexuals became clear to me. do I hav
I have experienced oppression be- Nothin
cause I am a woman, a Puerto Rican,
black, a lesbian, partially deaf, non- onl
Catholic, and an independentista (an
advocate for the independence of
Puerto Rico). Just as these identities come together
in one person, forming part of a whole, the preju-
dices against them have one common origin, one
root: a hierarchical, patriarchal society. Based on this
understanding, I believe that any social or political
struggle that excludes any marginal group from its
discourse and practice is condemned to become an
oppressive project.
As someone who is herself marginalized, I have
radicalized my option for Puerto Rico’s marginal-
ized sectors. Last November, I turned myself in to
the legal authorities confessing my violation of
Article 103 of the Penal Code of Puerto Rico, which
penalizes same-sex sexual relations. Like the
African Americans who engaged in civil disobedi-
ence by violating discriminatory laws in the United
States during the struggle for civil rights in the
1960s, we, who are also seeking the repeal of
unjust laws, are challenging the state to enforce
these laws by demanding to be prosecuted for our
alleged crimes. It is the duty of the state, after all,
to enforce its laws.
Some people believe that such actions are a
waste of time because they challenge a law that is
not enforced. This is mistaken. am Regardless of how dead it is, Article 103 can be activated and enforced at d, every any moment. Because the law marks
hat I nonheterosexuals as criminals, we are vulnerable. We can lose our basic
n court rights to housing, work and the cus- tody of our children if it becomes
prison known that we are homosexual, les- bian or transgendered people. These nake are not hypothetical situations. I
recently met two teenagers who mination were expelled from a vocational
er that school when the director learned that they were gay.
more We are all aware that eliminating prejudice goes beyond repealing a
t. What particular law. At the same time, “however, we must realize that this to lose? law is the institutional framework that legitimizes prejudice. The state -we can seeks to maintain Article 103 on the
win. books as a legal justification for the discrimination against homosexuals and lesbians and to use it when it is beneficial to its interests. The article also serves to mollify the moralistic concerns of some members of the clergy, who say that all human beings have cer- tain basic rights, yet maintain that nonheterosexu- als are less entitled to them because we love and/or have sexual relations with persons of the same sex. It is important to continue this challenge to the judicial system-an action we have called civil dis- obedience in defiance of unjust laws. Through these actions, we call attention to our situation as homosexual, lesbian and transgendered people, and we expose the injustices sanctioned by the state. Although the courts have attempted to dis- miss my case by saying that sodomy must involve a penis, I will continue to confess my “crime” in defi- ant civil disobedience. The battlefront in this strug- gle is wide and it is growing. The Coalition Against Article 103 and In Favor of The Right To Intimacy, which is comprised of religious, political, feminist and student organizations, reveals that our demands have transcended the so-called gay com- munity. As the days pass and the courts fail to take action against me for the “crimes” I have commit- ted, the hypocrisy and immorality of the system are further revealed. If I am arrested, every day that I spend in court or prision will make the discrimina- tion we suffer that much more apparent. In these circumstances, what do I have to lose? Nothing- we can only win.
Margarita De Lebn is co-pastor of Christ the Healer Church in Santurce, Puerto Rico. This article originally appeared in the November 20, 1997 issue of Claridad Translated from the Spanish by Lawrence M. La Fountain-Stokes.
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