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Dominican Republic LGBT Movement--A Sociopolitical and Cultural Approach

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer (LGBTQ) Movement
in the Dominican Republic:
A Sociopolitical and Cultural Approach

Dr. Jacqueline Jiménez Polanco
(FLACSO, Santo Domingo)
jacquelinepolanco@yahoo.com

The Program in American Culture, the Latino/Latina Studies Program,
and the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

October 11, 2004

My background as a Dominican out-lesbian scholar
In July 2001 a Gay and Lesbian Pride celebration took place in the Dominican Republic with the slogan “Llegó la Hora”. This event, the first and only one held in the Caribbean nation’s history, represented a landmark in the gay and lesbian movement. At that time, I was an Assistant Professor in the Puerto Rican/Latin American Studies Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice/The City University of New York. It was my sixth year in a tenure-track position and I was completing the process to apply for tenure. I was the only Dominican teacher in a full-time position at John Jay, which small Latino faculty contrasted with the large Latino student body, Dominicans representing the highest proportion. In addition, I was one out of the only three junior Dominican scholars in full-time positions at CUNY, with the largest Dominican student population in New York City.

Aware of my responsibilities as a full-time faculty and my commitment to be a role model for the Latino student population, I shared my teaching duties with participation in college committees, research and publications, and faculty/student activities at John Jay and other CUNY colleges. Also, I was involved in community activities and encouraged students understanding of public concerns through the “Cultural Awareness and Community Network” sections that I developed in my Ethnic and Caribbean studies courses. In addition, I participated in activities of Las Buenas Amigas (the oldest Latina lesbian organization in New York City). Throughout those years I did not feel confident, however, to come out in class. I feared that the eventual rejection to my lesbian identity in a mostly conservative heterosexual environment would affect my tenure.

My connection with the CUNY-Dominican Studies Institute at City College allowed me to participate in the transnational conference “Desde la Orilla: La Diversidad como Reto de la Nación Democrática”. This conference was held in June 2001 in New York and Santo Domingo. It was the first academic meeting ever gathering Dominican scholars, activists and artists from the Island and the Diaspora, as well as Puerto Ricans and Mexican scholars.

As a member of the conference organizing committee I discussed with Professor Silvio Torres-Saillant, (at the time Director of the Dominican Studies Institute) about the permanent exclusion of lesbian and gay issues from the Dominican academic discourse and suggested to invite lesbian and gay scholars and activists to participate in the conference. Therefore, it became the first event discussing gay and lesbian issues within the Dominican academia.

The conference happened together with the Pride celebration in New York that Dominican scholars and activists from the Island attended for the first time. It had been also preceded by controversies emerged in Santo Domingo that year, when the violation of gay and lesbian’s human and citizenship rights fueled their involvement in political advocacy. In the first advocacy gay and lesbians claimed the National Police chief (General Pedro de Jesús Candelier) to revert his decision of dishonor and dismiss two members of the institution accused of being discovered in homosexual activities. The second was a request to the official authorities to release the order that closed the gay and lesbian stand in the Feria Internacional del Libro (International Book Fair).

Those events motivated Dominican gay and lesbian activists and scholars to organize the Pride celebration in Santo Domingo, using the conference as a mean to promote awareness and participation. Everything happened so fast that all of a sudden I got involved in the promotion of the Pride in the conference while coming out as a lesbian through interviews in newspapers and TV programs.

The Pride celebration was very successful and the whole experience was so rich and inspiring that for the first time in my life after a long-lasting transnational migratory process –that took me to Spain, Puerto Rico and the US-- I realized that there was a gay and lesbian community in Santo Domingo and that I belonged in there. I also perceived that there was a lot of work to do to propel the recognition and respect of the LGBT human and citizenship rights and improve their socioeconomic conditions, and that I wanted to become part of that process. Thus, when I came back to New York that summer I had the feeling that the moment had arrived for me to prepare my return to the homeland. And so I did a year later.

That decision also helped me to understand that I needed to improve my role model as a professor through initiating a coming out process that teaches students to understand that every human being deserves respect of their integrity and recognition and protection of their human and citizenship rights regardless of their sexual identity.

The September 11th terrorist activities took place and their perverse effects in increasing racial/national hatred and censorship intensified even more the needs of changing my teaching and research paths. In my course syllabi I introduced topics related to the history of the gay and lesbian movement in the US, Latin American/Caribbean region. Also, I started to design my research project on the Dominican gay and lesbian movement while building up a network connection with LGBTQ organizations in the US, Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain. I became a member of CLAGS (CUNY-Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies), Las Buenas Amigas and OUT Poc Pac (Out-People of Color Political Action Club) in New York and of GAYLESDOM (Colectivo de Gay y Lesbianas Dominicanas) in Santo Domingo. In addition, I started to participate in gay and lesbian activities in Madrid and other Spanish cities during my summer teaching as a visiting professor at universities of Andalucía and Salamanca. Meanwhile, I looked for an academic institution that would support my future work as an out lesbian scholar in the Dominican Republic. I explained my concerns to Prof. Ruben Sillié, (former Director of FLACSO) and he welcomed me as a new faculty member of FLACSO-Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales in Santo Domingo.

During these last two years as a returned migrant in Santo Domingo, I have been working as an academic and a free-lance consultant. I have been also involved in community activism. That experience has driven me to lead the formation of a sexual minorities’ political action committee, the CAP LGBTIR (Comité de Acción Política de Lesbianas, Gays, Bisexuales, Transgéneros, Transexuales, Trasvestis, Intertesexuales, Raras y Raros). In addition, I am conducting this research project on the gay and lesbian movement.

Project design
The goal of this project is to analyze the formation and development of the LGBTQ movement in the Dominican Republic, from a historical and sociopolitical perspective. It also looks at providing visibility to the Dominican sexual minorities through observing their presence in the past and the present, and acknowledging their contributions to the development of society. In order to achieve these goals, I am examining the formation and development of the movement in the context of the Dominican Republic’s social, cultural, economic, and political dynamics. I also analyze documents, publications, and dissertations, and conduct interviews with members of LGBTIQ groups and individuals.

Introduction
I believe that conducting a research project on the history of a social movement implies the observation of the cultural, social, and political characteristics of the society where it emerged and developed. It provides awareness on the foundational nature of the movement, its organizational development, its internal/external conflicts, its links with other movements, its acceptance and/or rejection in society, and its advances and/or detractions.

When the analysis involves the LGBTQ movement in Latin American and Caribbean nations, I understand that there are two important elements to be observed: personal experiences and the repressive structures of the political systems: civil/military dictatorships, revolutionary governments, or formal democracies. (Mongrovejo,1996). Una propuesta de análisis histórico-metodológica del movimiento lésbico y sus amores con los movimientos homosexual y feminista en América Latina).
This research analyzes the emergence and development of the LGBTQ movement in the Dominican Republic from a historical and sociopolitical perspective.

It examines the Dominican LGBTQ movement from the 1980’s to the present in the context of a classist, racist, sexist, lesbo/homophobic society led by post-authoritarian governments in a clerical Judeo-Christian state where the Catholic hierarchy oversees, judges and controls the people’s sexual, cultural, political, military and religious live.

Statement of the problem
In the Dominican Republic’s history, as in the history of any other country around the world, sexual minorities have been repressed, persecuted, and excluded from society and politics.

As in any other nation in the Latin American and the Caribbean region, the exclusion of sexual minorities in the Dominican Republic is linked to the perverse effects of an historical pervading system of disparity and inequity that denies the society’s rewards to the large minorities or subordinate people, encompassed by LGBTIQ, blacks, poor, women, children, youths, aging, migrants, and people with physical and/or mental disability.

In this Caribbean nation, history of exclusion is tightly linked to the long-standing and bloody process of European conquest and colonization of the island of Hispaniola, which resulted in the establishment of the omnipotent power of the Catholic church in the Haitian and the Dominican republics that were founded in the nineteenth century.

In both Caribbean nations, the relations between church and state have been sustained by the inhumane social and political pillars of autocracies and plutocratic formal-democracies, grounded on poverty and illiteracy. The cultural values that preserve this historical marriage between clericalism and politics are grounded on patriarchy, racism, classism, homophobia and sexism with their discriminatory expressions of androcentricism and misogyny.

In the Dominican side, the implantation of these values in society has effected an ignominious and unpunished violation of the human and citizenship’s rights of the minority groups. This has engrained an overall perception of homosexuality and lesbianism as evil, which has resulted in the social, cultural, economic and political marginality of LGBTQ communities with its effects on violence and repression, family exclusion, hidden partnership, misrepresentation in politics, and under-representation in professional positions and academia.

The contemporary institutional basis of the Dominican Republic clerical nation-state is ingrained in three predominant institutions: the “Concordato”, the “Vicariato Castrense”, and the Patronato Nacional San Rafael.

The official marriage of Church and state started with the Concordat, signed on June 16, 1954 by Vatican’s Pope Píus XII and president Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, as a mechanism to consecrate Catholicism as the nation’s official religion. All the presidents after Trujillo – with the exception of Juan Bosch in his 1962 frustrated presidential tenure-- have maintained and nourished the Concordat. Bosch’s attempt at eliminating the Concordat caused his release from the presidential chair through a military coup supported by the Catholic Church hierarchy.

The Military Vicarship was signed in 1958 as a mean to sustain Catholic Church power in the Armed Forces and the National Police.

Article 68 of the Armed Forces Organic Law No. 873 of 1996 reads as follows: There will be a military chaplains’ body that will get the title of official under the supervision of the Metropolitan Archbishop and the General Military Vicar. Their lives and sacerdotal ministry in the military service will be subject to the discipline of the Armed Forces. Paragraph: There will be a direct supervision of this body in the issues related to religion and moral. They will keep in contact with the Civil Clergy and with religious, moral and welfare organizations, and will participate in the cult activities and religious formation of the military personnel.

The current National Police Law of 1954 forbids “sodomy”. According to this law, police men whose homosexual practice is “discovered”, are “publicly dishonored and dismissed” from the institution. The National Police By-Laws punishes sodomy among its members with 6 months to two years in prison.

In addition, the military code establishes that the top hierarchical members should exhibit a clear and undoubted virility.
These elements help to explain recent discriminatory acts and human rights violations of two police gay men who were removed in 2001 for being supposedly “discovered” in homosexual practices.

The “Patronato Nacional San Rafael” (San Rafael National Patronage) was established in 1958, as a non-for profit organization through which the Catholic Church receives public donations and non-taxed funds, and exercises control over the educational system.

Teaching Catholic religion is mandatory in Dominican schools. Today religion is taught through the course “human formation” (formación humana). In addition, the course “moral and civic” is mandatory and has a great component of religious patriotism. Almost fifty years after the implementation of the Concordat, the Vicarship, and the San Rafael Patronage, these institutions still sustain the relations between church and state in this non-secularized national state.

Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, Archbishop of Santo Domingo and top hierarch of the Dominican Catholic church, plays the main role in the clergy’s homophobic discourse and a permanent witch hunt against the gay and lesbian community. In his public speeches he uses an interminable list of discriminatory terms against gay men, such as “mannered, effeminate, feminine or lady-like figures” (amanerados, afeminados, feminoides o figuras adamadas).

In a defense of Catholic priests accused of pederasty, the Cardinal evoked in their defense their manhood and virility, while he criticized the United States' tolerance towards homosexuals as the evil causing the scandals involving Catholic priests in pederasty crimes.

Notwithstanding with the growing number of accusations of pederasty against Catholic priests, official data shows that in the Dominican Republic, pederasty is a crime mostly committed by the children’s family, relatives, friends, and/or acquaintances.
Homophobia has many supporters in mass media. Gays are commonly treated as criminals and are ridiculed in newspapers and TV/broadcast programs.

Racism, sexism and homophobia are rooted in the political activity of the three dominant parties, the PRD (Dominican Revolutionary Party), the PRSC (Reformist Social Christian Party), and the PLD (Dominican Liberation Party).

In the 1994 general elections, political leaders from the PLD and PRSC headed racist campaigns against the black-Haitian born PRD’s candidate José Francisco Peña Gómez. In 2000, the PLD party conducted a sexist rumor against former Vice-president Milagros Ortiz Bosch’s supposed alcohol addiction. Also, words were spread during the 2004 presidential campaign about Ortiz’s lesbianism. Ortiz is the first woman to achieve the vice-presidency in the country’s history, and she has never said a word either to deny or to accept those rumors.

Former Dominican Republic’s President Hipólito Mejía (PRD, 2000-2004) frequently used homophobic terms against his PLD opponents, as well as racist and sexist expressions towards women. He was recently involved in an international scandal for using racist and homophobic terms during a recorded TV interview conducted by the Univisión journalist Jorge Ramos. When talking about people’s criticism of his political performance, Mejía said that he rejects the critics because when the people ask him to change they want him to play the role of a “little fagot” (mariconcito).

At the end of the interview, ex-President Mejía jokingly called “little monkey” (monito) to a black TV cameraman. And when the journalist told the President that he would interview his PLD opponents, Mejía told Ramos to ask them “if it is true that they like men”. Later on, Mejía’s PPH faction in the PRD conducted a homophobic campaign against Leonel Fernández. But – similar to his political opponent Milagros Ortiz - he didn’t react to reverse those accusations.

The media reports that when in a previous interview a foreign journalist asked ex-President Mejía about the tourist attractions of the country-island he responded that it has the best and most varied range of women: blonde, blacks, mulattoes. Like other nations in Latin America and the Caribbean, homosexual and lesbian relations are not mentioned in the Dominican Republic’s Constitution and the adjective laws. Furthermore, the legislation makes no difference between homosexuals and heterosexuals in regards to adult relations. However, laws ruling morality are used against gay men and lesbians. Article 330 of the Penal Code punishes violations to decorum and good behavior in the streets with two years in prison.

In a recent newspaper’s report, the General Attorney of the Province of Santo Domingo East sustains that he will forbid the so-called “exclusive parties” in his jurisdiction because they are addressed to promote lesbianism.

In reality, civil and public rights are denied to sexual minorities. They are victims of social discrimination, political exclusion, police abuse, and sexual crimes. The crimes are mostly committed against gay men, transgender, transsexuals and travesties. In addition, civil union and marriage between gay and lesbian couples are not legally recognized. Gay and lesbian partners are not allowed to share bank accounts neither can they be beneficiaries of their partner’s health insurance, retirement plans, labor grievances, etc.

Origin and development of the LGBTQ movement
Aware of the sexual minorities’ infamous and inhumane reality in the Dominican Republic, several groups of women and men have been doing important efforts to form and develop a LGBTQ movement in the Dominican Republic. It has resulted in the formation of several groups, such as, Movimiento Gay 11 de Mayo, Mitilene, El Grupo de las Cinco, and ASA in the 1980’s; Ciguay and Chinchetas in the 1990’s; Gaylesdom, Lesbianas de Mente Abierta, Divagaciones Bajo La Luna in the 2000’s, and the current formation of the CAP LGBTIR in 2004

Until the recent creation of CAP LGBTIR, there has not been any group encompassing the LGBTIQ Dominican community at large, but a variety of few lesbians and L/G organizations. This has been due to several factors:

Lesbian sexual activism has been led by radical feminist women. The majority of non-feminist and moderate feminist-lesbians accept the rules of the dominant heterosexual group. Most of them are closeted. They fear the family rejection and maintain clandestine sexual relations with other women. Many of them are fervid critics of the LGBTQ movement. They reject the fact that activism breaks the class-boundary that guarantees a privileged position to the small elite in an exclusive unequal society.

There are few adult gay men involved in activism. Most of them are closeted and have clandestine homosexual relationships. They also reject the crossed-class relations prevailing in the movement. Gay men activists are mostly young, students, workers, employees or NGO’s members whose participation in the movement has destroyed in some cases their family relations and job positions.

Bisexual people are not interested in the LGBTQ struggles. Many of them are either married or divorced, and have children. They like to enjoy the benefits of a semi-clandestine acceptable position in society that eases their integration in the dominant heterosexual group and allows them to maintain relations with gays, lesbians, transsexuals, and transgender.

Transgender, transsexuals, and tranvestis represent the underground society. Most of them are very poor and are prostituted as an early age in order to survive. They are usually abused by the police and die in violent incidents at a very young age.

The L/G movement emerged in the early 1980’s during the formal democratization process that followed Joaquín Balaguer’s twelve-year long authoritarian regime. The movement reached its highest pick in the mid-1980’s concurrently with the society’s growing expectations towards the improvement of socioeconomic conditions and the recognition and respect of human rights.

The movement vanished in the early 1990’s when the economic distress of the “lost decade” fueled a large migratory process of Dominican citizens who traveled to the United States, Europe, and other Caribbean and Latin-American nations in search of a better life. The lack of leadership and the socioeconomic crisis atomized the movement until after its reemergence in 2000. The Dominican exodus pushed out many members of middle and middle-low classes (professionals, students, technicians, and blue collar workers) who fled from the increasing impoverishing process of this small nation-island. Since the L/G leaders and membership belonged to middle and middle-low sectors, the migratory vacuum greatly affected the movement’s development.

Consequently, the L/G community at large could not participate in the 1990’s process of institutionalization that prompted the incorporation of civil organizations into the public policy-making process subsidized by international agencies. The only exception was ASA (Amigos Siempre Amigos), a non-governmental organization addressed to provide health support to gay men with HIV-AIDS.

Paralleling the gradual disintegration of the L/G movement in the island, a new expression started to emerge in the largest Dominican community in the United States, settled in New York City.

The LGBTQ community in NY has been contributing to the formation of a transnational Dominican LGBTQ community. This fact is epitomized by the growing participation and emerging leadership of Dominican lesbians in “Las Buenas Amigas” (LBA) -- the oldest Latina lesbian group in the US. In addition, the development of Alianza Dominicana H.O.P.E program and GLBTQ community (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning) has allowed the formation of the lesbian and bisexual adult and young groups “Woman to Woman” and “Simplicity”. It is also noticed the active work of Quisgleya, a newly-formed GLBT organization, and the consolidation of GALDE (Gay and Lesbian Dominicans Empowered) as the most representative Dominican LGBTQ organization in New York City.

The strategic and economic support of the LGBTQ community in New York has been helping to revamp the island’s movement, which boomed in 2001 during the events that fueled the celebration of the first Pride.

A brief recount of LGBTIQ groups in the island
The first L/G group, “Movimiento Gay 11 de Mayo” (May 11 Gay Movement), was created in 1983. This group gathered lesbians and male homosexuals with the purpose of organizing the L & G community, to achieve awareness of their own nature and their sexual identity, and try to change the false historical image that L/G people are degenerated. This short-lived group functioned during eleven months when problems with the use of funds and distribution of positions within the organization drove to its breakdown. (Aldebot, 1991).

Two years later, in September 1985, was founded the first known lesbian-feminist group in the Dominican Republic, “Mitilene – Colectivo de Lesbianas Feministas” (Lesbian-Feminist Collective). Mitilene is the name of the historic capital of Lesbos island in Greece. The main goal of this group was to contribute to create a space where lesbians could reflect about their lives and the problems they faced in society as a first step to achieve social and cultural transformations.

Mitilene’s intensive work lasted three and a half years. It included publication and distribution of bulletin “Pezones” (Nipples), participation in international events, and meetings gathering heterosexual and lesbian feminists.

Contradictions between heterosexual and lesbian feminists arose in a 1986 meeting when heterosexual women rejected the request of lesbians to open up a space for them within the feminist movement. Lesbian feminist believed that the patriarchal ideology sustaining sexual oppression included both straight and lesbian women. Therefore, feminist unity should exist on the basis of questioning heterosexuality. Heterosexual feminist opposed that idea, considering that sexual orientation goes beyond feminism and should be dealt separately. Therefore, lesbians should organize themselves with gay men and not look for the support of the feminist movement. Unable to achieve their goal, lesbian feminists continued debating the issue of patriarchy in Pezones as long as Mitilene remained active. (Aldebot, 1991; Paiewonsky, 2001).

“ El Grupo de las Cinco” was a small group created by five women in September 1988 to provide a space for reflection about personal problems and the individual growth of members, and to create an alternative social space for gay and lesbian friends. During its ephemeral existence the group could create a support-base structure for members where it organized meetings and workshops on eroticism and human development. Personal problems between the members drove to the breakdown of the group three months after its foundation (Aldebot, 1991).

The pandemic spread of the HIV-AIDS drove to the formation of “ASA – Amigos Siempre Amigos” (Friends Always Friends). This organization was founded in 1989 by César Mota (a gay man who died later on victim of AIDS) with the support of the State Secretary of Public Health’s AIDS and Sexual Transmitted Diseases Control Program. ASA’s work is addressed to provide emotional and physical support to gay men suffering the disease. ASA remains as the only one incorporated gay organization in the country and it receives the support of the USAID.

“ Ciguay” was a lesbian group created in 1990. The word Ciguay comes from ciguayana, a native Taino term that means place where women meet. It defined itself as a non-organized movement, nor as a public entity, neither as a club but as a collective whose goal was to gather lesbians to reflect about what they could do for themselves and other women in the community. It was also aimed to contribute to the creation of safe spaces where they could share as lesbians and have fun together without hiding or been attacked. The group promoted the creation of recreation spaces, organized monthly workshops, and celebrated parties on special dates. The incapacity to overcome Mitilene’s experience and the conflictive relation between the members drove to Ciguay’s disintegration in 1992. (Aldebot, 1991; Interview to Denise Paiwonsky, 2001).

“ Gaylesdom – Colectivo de Gays y Lesbianas Dominicanas” (Gaylesdom – Dominican Gay and Lesbian Collective) was created in 2001. It has been the only national L/G group functioning in the Dominican Republic until recently. The group emerged through the initiative of gays and lesbians (old and new members of the L/G movement) who decided to advocate the human and civil rights denied to the community.

The most salient advocacies led by Gaylesdom are the following: (1) A public request to the National Police chief, General Pedro de Jesús Candelier, to revert his decision to dishonor and dismiss two members of the institution accused of being discovered in homosexual practices. (2) Participation in the International Book Fair with a stand devoted to divulge the LGBTQ life and problems and a campaign to prevent the transmission of HIV-AIDS. (3) Organization of the first Lesbian and Gay Pride in July 2001 that constitutes a landmark in the history of the movement due to the large participation of the LGBTQ community, the support of progressive intellectuals and leftist politicians, the respect and support of the masses, and the absence of violent incidents involving the police. However, in the last two years the group has not been very active and unable to celebrate the Pride due to the position of the National Police to deny permission for lesbian and gay public activities.

“ Lesbianas Dominicanas de Mente Abierta” (Open-Minded Dominican Lesbians) is a group integrated by young lesbians who meet in Santiago, the second largest city of the country, to have fun and talk about their live in society.

“ Divagaciones Bajo La Luna” is a literary group integrated by lesbian and bisexual women writers and artists. It emerged in 2002 with the idea of publishing a Dominican lesbian anthology. They meet once a week to share their writings, thoughts and personal experiences.

“ CAP LGBTIR” (Political Action Committee of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Tranvestis, Intersexual and Queer) is a newly-formed non-partisan political organization encompassed by sexual minorities and progressive pansexual and heterosexual. Its mission is to propel public policy changes to promote and guarantee the recognition and respect of human, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights to sexual minorities and all subordinate sectors (blacks, women, peoples with mental/physical disabilities, children, youths, aging, immigrants, and workers).

Significance of the study
The characteristics of the Dominican society impose strong obstacles to the development of the LGBTIQ community. Despite all the odds, the last two decades denote a rich activism of lesbians and gays who have organized and mobilized to struggle for the improvement of the quality of life of the community.

There are no published studies of the Dominican LGBTIQ community in the island, neither in the Diaspora. This author believes that many people in academia and society have very little information about the life and struggles of the Dominican LGBTIQ community. This community is expanding at the national and transnational level, and its history needs to be compiled, analyzed, and exposed. This author only knows the work of two scholars who have conducted research on the L/G movement in the Dominican Republic and gay men in New York. Nelsy Aldebot (1991), a feminist and university professor, conducted a research on lesbianism as a form of women’s resistance to patriarchy. Carlos Decenas is currently conducting research on Dominican gay men in the United States.

The significance of this study is twofold: First, it seeks to make a contribution in the understanding of the formation and development of the Dominican lesbian and gay movement, a topic that has received little attention in the scholarly literature. Second, it means to give visibility to the rejection and exclusion of the Dominican LGBTQ community, and the denial of their right to a full citizenship. Many of those who are out are commonly harassed or persecuted. The violation of the human and civil rights is a common place for the LGBTQ community. This study seeks to contribute to promote the LGBTQ inclusion, respect, and protection through the acknowledgment of their contribution in society.

To conclude
What are the challenges faced by the LGBTQ movement in the Dominican Republic?
To start, the most important challenge would be the development of a collective consciousness that recognizes the classist barriers which are rooted in a heterosexist way of thinking and that dominate the social structure of the Dominican Republic.
To overcome these challenges I propose three strategic processes:

A. The effective incorporation of transsexuals
To break class barriers it is imperative that transsexuals, tranvestis and transgender subjects are openly and truly incorporated. This is a tremendous challenge that urges us to a collective effort for the protection of human, civil, cultural and political rights of all.

B. The creation of alliances outside of the LGBTQ
It is important to reach out for support from heterosexual and pansexual progressive individuals and groups, so that the real changes in the structures and systems can be reached.

C. Change in the intellectual thought
The third challenge is to promote change in the intellectuals and academics so that they can understand that it is not necessary to proclaim that they are queer or fag in order to protect and ally themselves with the sexual minorities and promote human rights.

An example of this effort are, Waddys Jaquez and Josefina Báez’s performance work portraying the real lives of the large subordinate sectors in the Island and the Diaspora.

Josefina Baez’ transnational performance book “Dominicanish” intersects the lives of Dominicans in the Island and the Diaspora with her experiences with the common people in India. I will finish this presentation reading a fragment of Dominicanish, “Me Chulié en el Hall”:

“ Me chulié en el hall, craqueo chicle como Shamika Brown, hablo como boricua y me pienso como morena, la viejita de abajo no es viejita na’, el super se está tirando a la culona del quinto piso, hangueo con el pájaro del barrio, me junto con la muchacha que salió preñá, salgo con mi ex, hablo con el muchacho que está preso, garabatié paredes y trenes.”

References
Aldebot Reyes, Nelsy (1991). Lesbianism as a form of women’s resistance to patriarchy in Dominican Republic.
Baez, Josefina (2001). Dominicanish. New York: Ay-ombe.
Castañeda, María (2000). La experiencia homosexual. Barcelona: Piados.
Colectivo de Lesbianas Feministas (1987). Pezones. Vol. 3, No. 1, April. Vol. 3, No. 2, September. Santo Domingo
Colectivo de Lesbianas Feministas (1986). Pezones. Vol. 2, No. 1, November. Santo Domingo
González de Alba, Luis (2003). La orientación sexual: Reflexiones sobre bisexualidad originaria. Barcelona: Paidos.
Kopanke Ursula Rehaag & Daría Gabriela Suárez. Justicia para todas: Discriminación contra las lesbianas en Costa Rica.
Lizarraga Cruchaga, Xabier (2003). Una historia sociocultural de la homosexualidad: Notas sobre un devernir silenciado. Barcelona: Piados.
Minaya, Mildred (2001). Leonardo Sánchez: En pos del gran sueño. Hoy: Areíto. Monday, July 22, p. 8.
Minaya, Mildred (2001). Jacqueline Jiménez Polanco: Una minoría con privilegios. Hoy: Areíto. Monday, July 22, p. 5.
Mondimore, Francis Mark (1998). Una historia natural de la homosexualidad. Barcelona: Piados.