Carlos Jáuregui (activist)

Carlos Jáuregui (22 September 1957 – 20 August 1996) was an Argentinian LGBT rights activist. He founded La Comunidad Homosexual Argentina (CHA, or the Argentine Homosexual Community) in 1984. In the early 1990s, he set up Gays por los Derechos Civiles (Gays DC, or Gays for Civil Rights) and organised the first Pride march in Buenos Aires. He died from an HIV-AIDS-related illness at the age of 38. In memorial, a national day of activism for sexual diversity was established. He was posthumously given the Felipa de Souza Award, and, in 2017, a station was renamed after him on the Buenos Aires Underground.

Not to be confused with Carlos Jauregui (chess master).

Carlos Jáuregui
Jáuregui in 1984
Born(1957-09-22)22 September 1957
La Plata, Argentina
Died20 August 1996(1996-08-20) (aged 38)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
NationalityArgentinian
Known forLa Comunidad Homosexual Argentina (CHA), Gays por los Derechos Civiles (Gays DC)

Early life

Carlos Jáuregui was born in La Plata on 22 September 1957.[1] After attending university, he studied as a postgraduate in Paris and then lived in New York City. When he returned to Argentina in 1982, he was not yet an activist.[2] The National Reorganization Process, the military dictatorship that had ruled Argentina since 1976, collapsed in 1983 and the following year Jáuregui founded La Comunidad Homosexual Argentina (CHA, or the Argentine Homosexual Community).[3]

Career

CHA became an important group campaigning for gay rights in Argentina and is internationally recognised as a force in creating the strong LGBT rights in Argentina.[4][5][6] By the end of the 1990s it was giving legal assistance, remembering AIDS deaths and campaigning for HIV/AIDS awareness and against LGBT discrimination.[7] Jáuregui published La homosexualidad en la Argentina (Homosexuality and Argentina) in 1987.[8] It recounted his experiences as an activist in Argentina and the foundation of CHA.[2] Jáuregui then set up Gays por los Derechos Civiles (Gays DC, or Gays for Civil Rights) in 1991, which later became Gays and Lesbians for Civil Rights.[9] Its most active years were 1993 until 1996, with the group focusing upon supporting victims of discrimination based on sexuality and sufferers of AIDS. Jáuregui became a media figure, performing stunts such as suing Antonio Quarracino (the Archbishop of Buenos Aires) for discrimination.[9] Unlike other gay leaders at the time, he always insisted upon the four "legs" of the "table", namely gay, lesbian, transexual, and travesti, saying that if any leg was missing the whole table would collapse.[10] In 1992, Jáuregui organised the Primera Marcha del Orgullo Gay Lésbica Travesti Trans Bisexual, the first LGBT Pride march in Buenos Aires.[3][5] The first march drew 300 people; by the late 2010s it was drawing over 100,000 people.[6]

Death and legacy

Carlos Jáuregui died at the age of 38 as a result of an HIV-AIDS-related illness on 20 August 1996.[1][11] His partner Pablo Azcona and his brother Roberto Jáuregui had each previously died from AIDS related illnesses, in 1988 and 1994 respectively.[5][12] Soon after his death, the Buenos Aires City Legislature voted to add a clause that punishes acts of sexual discrimination to the city's constitution.[5]

A square was named after him in Buenos Aires, and an annual day of activism for sexual diversity (el Día del Activismo por la diversidad sexual) was launched.[11][13] In 1998, he was posthumously given the Felipa de Souza Award.[14] A Buenos Aires Underground station was named after him in 2017; Santa Fe – Carlos Jáuregui station was opened by Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, chief of local government, and featured rainbow-coloured steps and a large mural.[11][4] The Independent claimed it was the first station in the world to be named after a LGBT activist.[4]

Mabel Bellucci wrote Orgullo – Carlos Jáuregui, una biografía política (Pride – Carlos Jáuregui, a political biography), which was published in 2010.[15] A film about Jáuregui's life was made in 2016, titled Carlos Jáuregui: The Unforgettable Fag.[10][16]

References
  1. "Carlos Jáuregui: Vida y activismo". Revista Furias (in Spanish). 20 August 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  2. Encarnación, Omar G. (2016). Out in the Periphery: Latin America's Gay Rights Revolution (eBook). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-046972-6. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  3. Iwanek, Natalia (9 March 2020). "Carlos Jáuregui: Profiling a Legendary Argentinian Queer Activist". Passion Passport. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  4. Necati, Yas (9 August 2018). "Argentina, with its first-class LGBTQ+ rights and its failure to legalise abortion, proves an uncomfortable theory about progress". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 March 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  5. Darling, Laura. "Carlos Jáuregui". Making Queer History. Archived from the original on 6 April 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  6. Lemus, Karen Michelle. "Buenos Aires gears up for the huge celebration of LGBT culture". Buenos Aires Times. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  7. Balderston, Daniel; Gonzalez, Mike; Lopez, Ana M. (2000). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Latin American and Caribbean Cultures. Routledge. p. 407. ISBN 978-1-134-78851-4. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  8. Jáuregui, Carlos Luis (1987). La homosexualidad en la Argentina. Ediciones Tarso. ISBN 9789509578067.
  9. Eckstein, Susan; Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P. (2003). Struggles for Social Rights in Latin America. Psychology Press. p. 262. ISBN 978-0-415-93527-2. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  10. Walker-Dack, Roger. "Film Review: "Carlos Jáuregui : The Unforgettable Fag"". We The People. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  11. Jackman, Josh (27 March 2017). "The first underground station to be named after an LGBT activist looks absolutely beautiful". PinkNews. Archived from the original on 14 February 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  12. Bellucci, Mabel (4 December 2010). "El camino de un luchador [The way of a fighter]". La Nacion (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  13. Redacción (20 August 2019). "¿Por qué se celebra el Día del Activismo por la diversidad sexual en Argentina?". Telesol Diario (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  14. "Awards". OutRight Action International. 19 October 2016. Archived from the original on 13 July 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  15. "Orgullo. Carlos Jáuregui, una Biografía Política de Mabel Bellucci [Pride – Carlos Jáuregui, a political biography by Mabel Bellucci". hemisphericinstitute.org. Archived from the original on 14 July 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  16. "QAFF18: Carlos Jauregui". 'Queer' Asia. 8 May 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
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