For Pepa Gaitán, for Higui de Jesús, for the everyday and silenced violence, hundreds of lesbians took part in a festival with music, poetry, and a manifesto on Lesbian Visibility Day. They denounced street attacks and the arrests of six members of the Ni Una Menos Collective. And they called for a march this afternoon in their own column during the International Women's Strike. Photos: Ariel Gutraich (Buenos Aires) Madonna plays and the wind begins to blow as the organizers get everything ready to kick off the festival for Lesbian Visibility Day : proclamations, live music, soccer, poetry readings, and a final manifesto. With the Torre Monumental as a backdrop, across from the Retiro train station, at 5:30 in the afternoon more than two hundred people have already formed various groups. Some display banners for the freedom of Higui de Jesús , this year's major battle; others set up on the grass with screen prints; and still others sell books on queer feminist themes.

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This March 7th marked seven years since the murder of Pepa Gaitán. Higui De Jesús, accused of homicide for defending herself against her rapists, remains imprisoned. The lesbian movement decided that something different had to be done than the gatherings in front of Congress in previous years. Their voices needed to be heard louder. For this purpose, the Permanent Lesbian AssemblyFrom there, the festival was organized, as well as the column that will march today as part of the International Women's Strike. [caption id="attachment_2225" align="alignnone" width="798"] We are here to remember Pepa and to demand justice for Higui. But also because we want to assert ourselves as political subjects based on our identity. Lesbians and trans people are made invisible within the women's movement. Lesbians have always been the backbone of feminism. This gathering was a grassroots effort and a groundbreaking initiative. The Assembly was created for Higui, but also for Marcela Crelz, murdered last year by her mother for being a lesbian. And for all the cases of violence we experience daily. They tried to subject Higui to a corrective rape, and that is the hallmark of cis-patriarchy: to correct our identity,” Gala Abramovich tells Presentes. [/caption] Holding a festival in Retiro has an explanation: so that everyone can come, especially lesbians from the greater Buenos Aires area, where violence is constant.

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“Right now, the grassroots movement is very fragmented. It’s great and very powerful that a group of lesbians from different sectors have come together. Some of us are active in the labor movement, others marched in the Pride March with the Lohana Berkins Collective, and others are part of the Ni Una Menos collective,” adds Laura Safo, who is also a member of the Permanent Lesbian Assembly.

 “What happened to Higui is not an isolated case”

[caption id="attachment_2226" align="aligncenter" width="802"] “Cases of violence against women and lesbian women are increasing. It's just that lesbians aren't being mentioned. We're here because we need constant visibility. What happened to Higui isn't an isolated case; it happens all the time, and we in the greater Buenos Aires area experience it daily, as well as people's indifference. Today we came from the South, the West, and the North to try to break that indifference, to say, 'Here we are, and we won't be silenced,'” she told Presents Ernestina, from the Tortas de Barrio group, the diversity area of ​​the Frente de Organizaciones en Lucha (Front of Organizations in Struggle).[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2227" align="aligncenter" width="796"] “I’m here because my partner is a lesbian, and I’m always afraid for her. For both of us, really. People yell things at us in the street, about our hair color or for walking hand in hand. This is the first time I’ve participated in Lesbian Visibility Day, and I feel like every day is a struggle. And it’s a fight that also needs to be waged through education, something that unfortunately isn’t happening,” says Macarena.

“More lesbians, less police”

The comedian Ana Carolina She acted as master of ceremonies and, from the microphone, introduced the musicians and poets and made the necessary announcements, such as the existence of a box to collect items to take to Higui. “We are here to say that we are very, very lesbian, that lesbians do not forget their dead. And they stand with their living,” she said to an audience that burst into song. “Freedom for Higui. We’re going to get you out, we’re organized.” [caption id="attachment_2229" align="aligncenter" width="799"] After songs and poetry readings, Malena Nijenshohn, one of the members of the Ni Una Menos collective detained by police yesterday in the Almagro neighborhood, recounted what happened to her. A group of men chased her and five other activists for being lesbian feminists while they were carrying out outreach and propaganda activities for today's strike. After shouting "Christ lives" and "lesbians" at them, these men called the police, who arrived with three patrol cars and an unusual deployment. Malena and her companions spent the night at the police station and were only released at 2:00 p.m. "I wish the police would act as quickly in cases of violence against women as they did with us," she said. They all joined in the chant of "More lesbians, less police."

“Great things are built with the power of our joy”

 Philosopher Virginia Cano, a member of the Permanent Lesbian Assembly and author of the book "Tortilla Ethics," read the collectively written manifesto. It concluded with the words, "Greatness is built with the power of our joy." [caption id="attachment_2230" align="aligncenter" width="798"] March 7, Lesbian Visibility Day, Retiro, Buenos Aires[/caption] The members of this “pack, this organized fury,” as the text read says, ended the day with more music. And with the call to action for today in the City of Buenos Aires: to march together with the slogan “Freedom for Higui,” from Hipólito Irigoyen and San José at four in the afternoon.

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