Built collectively with lesbian activists in Rio de Janeiro and proposed by the mandate of Councilwoman Marielle Franco (PSOL), the Lesbian Visibility Bill was rejected yesterday in the Rio de Janeiro City Council.
Marielle Franco's mandate called on lesbian social movements to draft this bill, which aims to establish the Day of Lesbian Visibility, inserting the date, which is an important milestone in the struggle of the lesbian women's movement, into the city's official calendar.
"We're fighting for this day, which already exists, because we're already on the streets every day talking about the demands of lesbians - for this day to be a day for debating our demands and questions about health, safety, our specific demands within the LGBT alphabet soup," explains Cristiane Furtado, from the Sapa Roxa Collective and the Rio de Janeiro Lesbian Front.
The bill was rejected by just two votes (19 to 17) in a vote held yesterday, August 16, 2017. "Losing was very hard, we thought the bill would be approved. What we saw was the City Council saying it wasn't necessary. Councillor Tarcísio Motta said that 12 religious dates have already been approved this year alone, but we can't have a day to deal with our lives, our demands. What they said with this disapproval was that our lives don't matter. What we see is a majority of white men making decisions about our lives, undertaking a policy of genocide of the lives that don't matter," Cristiane laments.
Despite the bill's rejection, the Rio de Janeiro Lesbian Front remains steadfast in its fight for rights, promoting various actions during the Month of Lesbian Visibility: "There are various activities all over the city during this Month of Lesbian Visibility. We're planning a walk next year. On the 29th we'll be in Maré supporting the activities of the Lesbi Resistance Collective of Favelas. On the 30th, the Lesbian Front is holding Occupy Sapatão from 6pm in Cinelândia. We're also going to try to get a health protocol approved to guide medical care for lesbians - very serious things happen to us in the health field, it's common to have very dehumanized care," says the activist.
About Lesbian Visibility Day
August 29 is the National Day of Lesbian Visibility. The date began in 1996 with the First National Lesbian Seminar, organized by the Rio de Janeiro Lesbian Collective, co-founded by Neusa Das Dores Pereira, who also co-founded the ELAS Fund.
Check out some of the activities on the intense agenda that lesbian social movements are taking to the streets across the country throughout August:
- Occupy Sapatão for Lesbian Visibility, in Cinelândia, RJ