User:Jdaigle23/Dance of the Forty-One

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Impact on societal views of homosexuality in Mexico
The widespread discussion of the scandal in newspapers led to an increase in discussion of homosexuality as a whole. Mexican writer and philosopher Carlos Monsiváis (link) stated that the scandal has such an effect on Mexican views on homosexuality that "the Redada [raid] invents homosexuality in Mexico" (Monsiváis, 164). Homosexuality was used as an example of the moral failings of the Mexican upper-class, as many of the men arrested in the raid were considered elites (Macias-Gonzales and Rubenstein, 10).

In the decades after the Dance of the Forty-One, some members of Mexico's LGBT community embraced the raid as an important moment in their community's history. Robert Franco, a historian who has studied the scandal extensively, argues that the Dance of the Forty-One fostered a sense of identity in LGBT Mexicans: I argue that contestations by elite state and cultural actors and activists from the 1940s through 1970s to remove the shame and stigma associated with the Forty-One began a process of homosexual identity formation and liberation that eventually enabled the proliferation of new and radical modes of representation and community dialogue by the end of the century.

-Robert Franco The Frente Homosexual de Acción Revolutionaria (Homosexual Revolutionary Action Front), a Mexican LGBT rights group founded 1978, advocated strongly against police brutality and cited the Dance of the Forty-One as part of their inspiration, asserting drag and cross-dressing to be an important "poltical weapon" (Singer, 24-25). Later in 2001, an exhibit debuted in the Museum of the City of Mexico dedicated to the scandal's one-hundred year anniversary. The museum also hosted a dance in honor of the original Dance of the Forty-One. (Vargas).