User:MahHdz01/LGBT history in Chile

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LGBT History in Chile encompasses a broad history of related to gender and sexuality within the country of Chile. Oftentimes this history has been informed by the diverse forms of governments that have existed within Chile, including colonialism, military dictatorship, and democracy. Global events like the AIDS epidemic also had an impact on Chilean LGBT history. There are also multicultural elements with the different cultural perceptions of gender and sexuality from indigenous groups and Spanish influence.

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Colonialism

There is documentation of an Andean concept called tinkuy, which refers to the union of complimentary binaries through meditation. Andean cultures also participated in same-sex relationships, which would later be used by Spanish colonizers as justification for imperialism. This typically came from a more complex perception of gender and relations by indigenous people being reduced to sodomy and therefore condemned by conquistadors due to biblical reasons. The Mapuche also had machi weye, which were co-gender specialists, typically with alternative sexualities. Further information on gender and sexuality within indigenous communities is difficult to find due to the fact that most documentation comes from Europeans, but it is at least known that indigenous peoples' conception of gender and sexuality were different to that of the Spanish settlers.

(Edited from LGBT history in Chile)

Military dictatorship (1973–1990)

The only public actions by gay people were through the radical artistic group Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis (The Mares of the Apocalypse), formed in 1987 by the artists Francisco Casas and Pedro Lemebel. They aimed to question the status quo imposed by the dictatorship, and are one of the first examples of an organized political voice from gay Chileans.

While the exact origins of the group's name are unknown, it seems to have been inspired by the AIDS epidemic, which inspired imagery of a biblical plague. The group was characterized by controversial acts of political protest. During the proclamation of Patricio Aylwin as Concertación candidate for the presidential election of 1989, Lemebel and Casas unfolded a large banner that said "Homosexuals for change." The ceremony set the beginning of Aylwin's campaign to be Chile's first democratically elected president since Salvador Allende.

Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis would go on to participate in other protests during their "reestablishing" of the Casa Central of the University of Chile. This involved riding into the building naked and on horses, intentionally invoking images of Lady Godiva and homosexuality.