The morning of Friday 24^th a meeting on “Globalization and social exclusion: an alternative proposal for LGBTs” took place at the WSF, organized by the South/South Dialogue of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender (SSD-LGBT), the Women’s Area of the Latin American Information Agency (ALAI), and the Ecuadorian Foundation for Action and Education on Health Promotion (Fundación Ecuatoriana de Acción y Educación para la Promoción de la Salud - FEDAEPS).

The South/South Dialogue LGBT is an international space in which lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and organizations from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean participate. Its aim is toe generate analyses and proposals to confront the multiple forms of discrimination that affect the LGBT community in the South, in the context of globalization. The SSD-LGBT was launched at the 20^th World Conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) and at the 2^nd World Social Forum in 2002 organized a workshop also called “Globalization and social exclusion”.

On the panel this year were Irene León (Ecuador); Phumi Mtetwa (South Africa); Ana Rivera (Puerto Rico) and Celio Golin (Brazil). At first the panel had an audience of about 50 people, mostly women, although as the panel progressed another 50 people came to listen. There were people from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and the United States, and a strong Brazilian presence.

The interventions, both of the panelists and from the audience, stressed issues like education, the need to present unified demands, inter-generational work, the challenge to socially established models, violence against LGBT people, health care and promotion, and above all how to ensure continuity of the struggle after the World Social Forum.

 Social insertion

Rosario, a lesbian activist from Brazil, urged LGBT organizations to aim to define a common agenda and a unified list of discussion issues by the end of the Forum. She spoke of the divisions and diversity that exist within LGBT organizations in Brazil and expressed her belief that the lesbian movement needs to accept the fact that it cannot be assumed to be homogeneous, simply on the basis of their shared lesbian identity. She also declared that the lesbian movement should seek to gain entry to other social activist groups, such as the campaign against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

Rosario’s mention of the FTAA process elicited an intervention by Irene León, who expressed the opinion that globalization is not merely an economic problem and that it cannot be disassociated from other social concerns. The establishment of a treaty like the FTAA goes far beyond trade issues, she stated; it would imply new norms governing social life, directly affecting basic aspects such as the production of knowledge.

 Resisting dehumanization

A participant from Rio de Janeiro said that in Brazil a homosexual is murdered every three days, although of course, these murders do not make the news, and there is no information available on how many lesbians are victims of homophobic violence in Brazil. She wondered how many women managed actually to get to the Forum, and she added that many others, in a country so large and with such a diverse culture, couldn’t make their voices heard. Finally, she said that she got the feeling that everything would come to an end at the Forum: “Either we must maintain this network or start a new one. We don’t want to be visible only on 28^th June and 29^th August”, historical dates in the LGBT calendar.

Ana Rivera, from Puerto Rico, added that the “victims” discourse was not attracting the attention of younger generations. Instead, she said, people mobilize when they feel identified with the issue. The challenge is to reach a stage in which it is not only LGBT people who are fighting for their rights, but everyone struggling together for respect for diversity. This was followed by a call to resist dehumanization.

Several speakers and members of the public insisted on the need to include the discussion on LGBT rights in education, and they wondered why the LGBT organizations had not attended the recently ended World Education Forum, which preceded the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre.