Lesbiradas Says, Enough!
Interview with an activist fighting for lesbian rights in Guatemala. Video

I'm Claudia Acevedo, part of Lesbiradas — the collective of liberated lesbians of Guatemala. Our mission is to make lesbians visible in Guatemala, along with the public defense of human rights for lesbians.

We have two directions in our work. On the one hand, we do some work on governmental reforms like trying to get legal changes to improve the conditions of lesbians in Guatemala. On the other, we try to do groundbreaking educational programs for lesbians, as well as offering information to society in general.

Some of the direct actions we've done include going all together to have a kiss-in in the central park of Guatemala City. We took off pretty quickly afterwards [laughing] because it's dangerous to be a lesbian in Guatemala.

This campaign we did about a year ago, we called, "Basta." [Enough!] Its goal was to get out the idea that lesbian rights are also human rights. We put stickers and posters all over Guatemala City.

We're afraid, all of us, because we lived through the last years of the repression in Guatemala. Nevertheless, we have the conviction that if we don't continue, the situation will never change, and not only for us, we're also joined with other struggles trying to change the political and social situation of Guatemala.