I never met Cesitar. At a meeting of religious leaders on the issue of If homosexuality, his father described him to us as he showed us his picture. arrestE The contrast was curious. While we dis- day cussed the subject in a technical, almost sanitized manner, Cesitar's father was spend passionate and torn by emotion as he described his son-a brilliant young or r man who, among many other things, was homosexual. I say was because will Cesitar could not resist the social pres- sures against his homosexuality, and as the discr a result, took his own life. In tears, his We SU1 father addressed our group of religious leaders: "Do something. This prejudice mucd cannot continue. It is a matter of life or death." That day, the urgency of the appare struggle against the oppression of homosexuals became clear to me. do I hav I have experienced oppression be- Nothin cause I am a woman, a Puerto Rican, black, a lesbian, partially deaf, non- onl Catholic, and an independentista (an advocate for the independence of Puerto Rico). Just as these identities come together in one person, forming part of a whole, the preju- dices against them have one common origin, one root: a hierarchical, patriarchal society. Based on this understanding, I believe that any social or political struggle that excludes any marginal group from its discourse and practice is condemned to become an oppressive project. As someone who is herself marginalized, I have radicalized my option for Puerto Rico's marginal- ized sectors. Last November, I turned myself in to the legal authorities confessing my violation of Article 103 of the Penal Code of Puerto Rico, which penalizes same-sex sexual relations. Like the African Americans who engaged in civil disobedi- ence by violating discriminatory laws in the United States during the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s, we, who are also seeking the repeal of unjust laws, are challenging the state to enforce these laws by demanding to be prosecuted for our alleged crimes. It is the duty of the state, after all, to enforce its laws. Some people believe that such actions are a waste of time because they challenge a law that is not enforced. This is mistaken. am Regardless of how dead it is, Article 103 can be activated and enforced at d, every any moment. Because the law marks hat I nonheterosexuals as criminals, we are vulnerable. We can lose our basic n court rights to housing, work and the cus- tody of our children if it becomes prison known that we are homosexual, les- bian or transgendered people. These nake are not hypothetical situations. I recently met two teenagers who mination were expelled from a vocational er that school when the director learned that they were gay. more We are all aware that eliminating prejudice goes beyond repealing a t. What particular law. At the same time, "however, we must realize that this to lose? law is the institutional framework that legitimizes prejudice. The state -we can seeks to maintain Article 103 on the win. books as a legal justification for the discrimination against homosexuals and lesbians and to use it when it is beneficial to its interests. The article also serves to mollify the moralistic concerns of some members of the clergy, who say that all human beings have cer- tain basic rights, yet maintain that nonheterosexu- als are less entitled to them because we love and/or have sexual relations with persons of the same sex. It is important to continue this challenge to the judicial system-an action we have called civil dis- obedience in defiance of unjust laws. Through these actions, we call attention to our situation as homosexual, lesbian and transgendered people, and we expose the injustices sanctioned by the state. Although the courts have attempted to dis- miss my case by saying that sodomy must involve a penis, I will continue to confess my "crime" in defi- ant civil disobedience. The battlefront in this strug- gle is wide and it is growing. The Coalition Against Article 103 and In Favor of The Right To Intimacy, which is comprised of religious, political, feminist and student organizations, reveals that our demands have transcended the so-called gay com- munity. As the days pass and the courts fail to take action against me for the "crimes" I have commit- ted, the hypocrisy and immorality of the system are further revealed. If I am arrested, every day that I spend in court or prision will make the discrimina- tion we suffer that much more apparent. In these circumstances, what do I have to lose? Nothing- we can only win. Margarita De Lebn is co-pastor of Christ the Healer Church in Santurce, Puerto Rico. This article originally appeared in the November 20, 1997 issue of Claridad Translated from the Spanish by Lawrence M. La Fountain-Stokes.
