The World in Question

This essay focuses on two radical gay/homosexual organizations of the early 1970s: Third World Gay Revolution (TWGR)—a small group of radical Black and Latinx activists that spun off from the Gay Liberation Front in 1970—and the Argentine organization Homosexual Liberation Front (FLH), which was active between 1971 and 1976. By analyzing periodicals, bulletins, and other ephemera produced by them, Garrido demonstrates how both groups not only articulated demands related to queer sexualities in relation to those of other oppressed communities but also inscribed their gay struggles in a movement for the liberation of all peoples on a planetary scale within the framework provided by third world anticolonial and anti-imperialist struggles being waged in African, Asian, and Latin American countries at the time. TWGR and the FLH engaged in “dissident forms of cosmopolitanism” (Chela Sandoval) that drew, in part, from the imaginary of a world in dispute—a world in which colonial and (neo)colonial/imperialist powers were being challenged and third worldism as a global emancipatory project led by “the darker nations” (Vijay Prashad) was gaining ground. At the dawn of neoliberal globalization, both organizations advanced a radical political agenda based on values of social justice with a spirit of transnational solidarity that, Garrido argues, may inspire the multidimensional nature of a queer cosmopolitics to come.

De vagos y maleantes a peligrosos sociales: cuando la homosexualidad dejó de ser un delito en España (1970-1979)

<p>A partir de la Ley de Peligrosidad y Rehabilitación Social (1970) se inició el movimiento social de liberación de gays y lesbianas. Desde la Agrupación Homosexual para la Igualdad Sexual (1972) se organizaron varios colectivos hasta aglutinarse en la Coordinadora de Frentes de Liberación Homosexual del Estado Español. En el contexto social y político de la transición lucharon junto con otros grupos marginales no sólo por la Derogación de la LPRS sino también ante la incomprensión de la mayoría de los partidos políticos marxistas, que eludieron enfrentarse a aspectos que reportaran un cambio en la sexualidad y en la institución familiar.</p><p> </p><p class="CuerpoAA">As a result of the Ley de Peligrosidad y Rehabilitación Social of 1970 (Social Danger and Social Rehabilitation Act), the gays and lesbians liberation movement was started. From the Agrupación Homosexual para la Igualdad Sexual in 1972 (Homosexual Group for Social Equality), different groups were organised until they developed into the Coordinadora de Frentes de Liberación Homosexual del Estado Español (Homosexual Liberation Fronts Committee from Spain). In the social and political context of the Spanish transition, they, together with marginal groups, fought not only for the abolition of the above mentioned law, but also against the incomprehension of most of the marxist parties,which avoided facing changes regarding with sexuality and the family institution.</p>

Dictatorial Rule and Sexual Politics in Argentina: The Case of the Frente de Liberación Homosexual, 1967-1976

The Frente de Liberacio´n Homosexual (FLH, 1967–1976) was the first political movement of homosexual men in Argentina. Despite its short life span, this organization set the ground for futuredevelopments.TheFLHemergedinthecontextofincreasingauthoritarianismratherthanbeingtheresultof a transition to democracy. The relationship with homophobic Peronists and left-wing traditions was, para-doxically, crucial for the emergence of the FLH. Most homosexual activists came from the Left, and they understood homosexual liberation as one aspect of the struggle against capitalism. These activists werehighly critical of anticapitalist politics as it existed in Argentina at the time, but they also actively sought tobecome allies of the expanding New Left during the period. Eventually, however, the 1976–1983 military dictatorship made all forms of dissidence impossible, and the FLH had to dissolve.

“-isms” and psychiatry: the threat of single issue politics

Single issue political movements (such as feminism, anti-racism, Marxism, homosexual liberation, animal rights etc) have been a major characteristic of the post-1960s radical scene in the United States and Western Europe. While such movements typically start out doing a good job, it is my assertion that they have now reached the point of posing a serious threat to medicine at large, and to psychiatry in particular.