Tag Archives: lesbians of colour

Argentina: Lesbian Higui acquitted after brutal attack and attempted corrective rape

Posted on 18/03/2022 by | Leave a comment
Higui speaks after being acquitted of manslaughter, having defended herself during a brutal and traumatic attack and attempted corrective rape.

On October 16, 2016, Argentinian woman Eva Analía De Jesús, better known as Higui, was walking through the Buenos Aires town of Bella Vista when a group of men attacked her because of her sexual orientation. Higui — who was given that nickname because she was a soccer player and had curls like the Colombian René Higuita — told the police and later the judges that her attackers beat her and tried to rape her. “I’m going to make you feel like a woman…a lesbian,” Cristian Rubén Espósito told her, according to his account. She took out a knife and plunged it into his chest. She fainted and when she regained consciousness she was arrested. Despite the fact that she reported an attempted corrective gang rape and that she was found unconscious by police officers, with torn clothing and numerous injuries from beating, her allegations were never investigated. She was charged with simple murder and spent almost eight months in jail. This Thursday she was aquitted.
(Translated)

El 16 de octubre de 2016, la argentina Eva Analía De Jesús, más conocida como Higui, caminaba por la localidad bonaerense de Bella Vista cuando un grupo de hombres la atacó debido a su orientación sexual. Higui —a quien le pusieron ese apodo por ser futbolista y tener rulos como el colombiano René Higuita— contó ante la policía y después ante los jueces que sus agresores la golpearon e intentaron violarla. “Te voy a hacer sentir mujer, forra, lesbiana”, le dijo Cristian Rubén Espósito, según su relato. Ella sacó una navaja y se la clavó en el pecho. Se desvaneció y cuando recuperó la conciencia estaba detenida. A pesar de que ella denunció un intento de violación grupal correctiva y que fue encontrada inconsciente por los policías, con la ropa rota y numerosos golpes, sus acusaciones nunca se investigaron. Fue acusada de homicidio simple y pasó casi ocho meses encarcelada, pero este jueves un tribunal dictó su absolución.
(Original)

Continue reading at: https://elpais.com/sociedad/2022-03-18/absuelta-higui-la-argentina-que-mato-al-hombre-que-intento-violarla-por-ser-lesbiana.html (Source)

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Australia: Lesbian couple told to leave cafe and ‘never come back’

Posted on 02/07/2020 by | Leave a comment

Image courtesy of Sarah Ward

Last Sunday, at the end of Pride month, during the worst health crisis in a century and as the world grapples with racial discrimination through the Black Lives Matter movement, the owner of Poets Cafe in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, chose the moment to demand an inter-racial pair of lesbian health workers leave his cafe and “never come back.”

C is a doctor who currently works in an Emergency Department. J is a student midwife on call to deliver babies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. QNews chooses not to divulge the names of the couple because they remain working in the health system at a time of global crisis.

Like most health workers, the two women work long shifts during the pandemic.

Last Sunday, enjoying rare time off together, they took a drive through the Sunshine Coast hinterland. They made the most of a rare opportunity to enjoy some downtime together and reconnoitre potential wedding venues for their planned nuptials. They arrived at scenic Montville — as the name suggests — a mountain village, just 20 minutes drive from Australia Zoo. With sweeping views across the Sunshine Coast from high atop the green hills of the Blackall Range, Montville enjoys a thriving tourist trade.

Swept away by the beauty of the small township and reassured of a friendly welcome by the rainbow flags dotted about the town, the couple looked around for a wedding venue.

C and J found the Poets Cafe. The cafe’s website boasts of “uninterrupted views of the beautiful Sunshine Coast.
…
While waiting for someone to take their order, the couple held hands as loving couples commonly do. They noticed that an older man they assumed owned the venue became visibly angry as he watched them.

C said, “We ordered coffee, took a menu, sat at a table and caught up on paperwork.” (With their work hours monopolised by caring for patients, they take paperwork home to do in their own time.)

J told QNews, ” We told four different waitstaff we wished to order food after our coffee.”

However, the moment the women took the first sip from their coffees, the older man instructed a staff member to present them with a bill.

C asked the man if he needed the table back. Although the cafe was not following COVID-19 restrictions, there were plenty of empty tables.

“Finish up and leave!”
The man responded angrily.

“I want you to just finish up and leave!”

Not comprehending what inspired the anger and adverse to causing a scene, the pair went outside. They thought the owner might follow and explain. Instead, one of the waitstaff came out and asked for payment for the coffees. The couple stated they would not pay after such poor treatment. They asked to speak to the owner but the staff member said he would not come out and somewhat defensively stated: “That’s just what he’s like.”

Seeing him standing at the counter unoccupied, C returned and asked for a word with him. He answered curtly.

“I want you to never come back here.”

Continue reading at: https://qnews.com.au/lesbian-couple-told-to-leave-cafe-and-never-come-back/ (Source)

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Australia: only lesbian Mardi Gras event removed

Posted on 18/02/2020 by | Leave a comment

Scarcella Lestalk

The controversy arose after [Arielle] Scarcella was invited to take part in a panel at the Les-Talk event sponsored by the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG).

As the organizer Les-Talk has since explained, Scarcella was to speak about lesbian, not trans issues – but her detractors started pressuring SGLMG on Twitter and YouTube to drop the event, launching at the same time an online petition with this goal in mind.

The SGLMG obliged.

Responding to Pauline Pantsdown, a parody Twitter account, the organization said, “We have been in touch with the event organizer and have now removed it from our Festival event listings.”

Scarcella’s reply revealed that the festival had only one women/lesbian focused event, which was now being taken down “because a bunch of cry babies complained that they don’t like a woman’s (my) opinion?”

Continue reading at: https://reclaimthenet.org/sydney-mardis-gras-cancel-culture-arielle-scarcella/ (Source)

Update:

Les-Talk was not officially cancelled, but was disassociated from Mardi Gras, according to a Facebook post made on the event’s official page. According to the post, the event is going forward being “privately held” by the “POC Queer women” organizing it.

Continue reading at: https://www.thepostmillennial.com/lesbians-removed-from-australian-pride-for-transphobia/ (Source)

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Support Higui, Argentinian lesbian on trial

Posted on 06/02/2020 by | Leave a comment

Higui
Gofundme campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/help-support-higui-argentinian-lesbian-on-trial

In 2016 in Argentina, Higui (Eva Analía de Jesús) was attacked by a group of men when visiting a friend in her home and defended herself from corrective rape.

After years of ongoing harassment for being lesbian, including being attacked and stoned, having her home burned and her pet killed, she was set upon by the three men, one of whom attempted to rape her for being lesbian.  Higui defended herself and her attacker was killed – she is now on trial for his death.

Higui was initially jailed while awaiting trial but was freed 8 months later, after public pressure.

Higui has faced ongoing violent lesbophobia in her community.

Listening2Lesbians is raising money to support her and demonstrate the worldwide solidarity we feel for her as lesbians and lesbian allies.

En 2016 en Argentina, Higui (Eva Analía de Jesús) fue atacada por un grupo de hombres cuando visitaba a una amiga en su casa y se defendió de una violación correctiva.

Después de años de hostigamiento continuo por ser lesbiana, incluyendo ser atacada y lapidada, quemar su casa y matar a su mascota, fue atacada por los tres hombres, uno de los cuales intentó violarla por ser lesbiana. Higui se defendió y su atacante resultó muerto ahora ahora está en juicio por ello.

Inicialmente, Higui fue encarcelada mientras esperaba el juicio, pero fue liberado 8 meses después, después de la presión pública.

Higui se ha enfrentado a una lesbofobia violenta en su comunidad.

Listening2Lesbians está recaudando dinero para apoyarla y demostrar la solidaridad mundial que sentimos por ella como lesbianas y aliadas lesbianas.

Update March 2022: Argentina: Lesbian Higui acquitted after brutal attack and attempted corrective rape

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Argentina: Higui, lesbian accused of murder in corrective rape case to face court

Posted on 27/01/2020 by | 7 comments

Higui

UPDATE: Argentina: Lesbian Higui acquitted after brutal attack and attempted corrective rape
There are four weeks left before the trial against Higui begins. Analía De Jesús, Argentina, 45, born in Haedo on June 7, 1974, is on trial for defending herself against corrective rape for being lesbian. On Mother’s Day 2016 (October 16), Higui went to visit her sister Mariana in the Lomas de Mariló neighborhood. That day, a group of men who had already attacked her on other occasions for being “chonga” (butch) surrounded her when she left a hallway. They threw her on the floor with a punch. One of them lowered her pants and ripped her boxers. Higui stabbed the rapist with a knife she had in her clothes to defend herself.

The other men began to kick her, while she protected her mostly curled up body as if it were a ball, covering her head with her arms. She was kicked very hard around her arms and shoulders, kidneys, genitals and perineum. While they beat her, Higui lost consciousness. Hours later, the flashlight and the screaming of the police officers woke her up. No one wanted to hear that Analía De Jesús defended herself from rape. “Who is going to want to rape you, black and fat?” the police mocked her. “I didn’t understand anything,” Higui recalls. “From one moment to another I was stunned by the pain, and stripped of all dignity, in a dungeon in Bella Vista”, accused of homicide although they hadn’t even informed her.  I didn’t know the aggressor was dead.

Higui waits in freedom for the trial that will take place between February 17 and 20 in Court No. 7 of San Martín. There is a defence request to postpone the debate until April, but the court has not yet responded.
(Translated)

Faltan cuatro semanas para que comience el juicio contra Higui. Analía De Jesús, argentina, 45 años, nacida en Haedo el 7 de junio de 1974, está procesada por defenderse de una violación correctiva por ser lesbiana. El Día de la Madre de 2016 (16 de octubre), Higui fue a visitar a su hermana Mariana en el barrio Lomas de Mariló. Aquel día, un grupo de hombres que ya la habían atacado en otras oportunidades por “chonga” (lesbiana masculina), la rodearon cuando salía de un pasillo. La tiraron al piso de una trompada. Uno de ellos le bajó los pantalones y le rompió el bóxer. Higui se defendió clavándole al violador un cuchillo que llevaba entre las ropas para defenderse.

Los demás hombres comenzaron a asestarle patadas, mientras ella protegía su cuerpo menudo enrollada como si fuera una bolita, cubriendo la cabeza con los brazos. La patearon muy fuerte en la zona de brazos y hombros, riñones, genitales y perineo. Mientras la golpeaban, Higui perdió la conciencia. Horas después, la despertaron la linterna y el griterío de los policías. Nadie quiso escuchar que Analía De Jesús se defendió de una violación. “¿Quién te va a querer violar a vos, negra, gorda?”, se burlaban los policías. “Yo no entendía nada”, recuerda Higui. De un momento a otro estaba aturdida de dolor, y despojada de toda dignidad, en un calabozo de Bella Vista. Acusada de homicidio. Aunque ni siquiera se lo habían informado. No sabía que el agresor estaba muerto.

Higui espera en libertad el juicio que se llevará a cabo entre el 17 y el 20 de febrero en el Tribunal Nº7 de San Martín. Hay un pedido de la defensa de postergar el debate hasta abril, pero el tribunal aún no respondió.
(Original)

Continue reading at: https://www.pagina12.com.ar/243430-se-viene-el-juicio-a-higui-acusada-por-defenderse (Source)

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Update: Brazilian court considering trial for police accused of killing Luana Barbosa in 2016

Posted on 18/08/2019 by | 2 comments

Luana Barbosa 2

The court heard this week from the three military police officers accused of beating to death Luana Barbosa dos Reis , 34, a non-feminine black, lesbian and marginalised woman, in front of her her 14-year-old son, and will decide in the next few days whether to take or not the defendants will go to trial.

According to witnesses and Luana herself, in a video recorded before her death, she was beaten during a police raid on the night of April 8, 2016, in the Jardim Paiva II neighbourhood, one of the outskirts of Ribeirão Preto, 312 km from the city of São Paulo, nicknamed “Brazilian California” or “national agribusiness capital”. Five days later, Luana died in the hospital. The cause of death was a cerebral ischaemia caused by traumatic brain injury.
…
According to witnesses, at the time of approach Luana Barbosa demanded the presence of a female police officer to conduct the search. To show that she was a woman, Luana lifted her shirt. At that moment she was punched and kicked that knocked her to the ground. This is the same version told by Luana Barbosa’s family three years ago.
(Translated)

A Justiça ouviu nesta semana os três policiais militares acusados de espancar até a morte Luana Barbosa dos Reis, 34 anos, mulher não feminilizada, negra, lésbica e periférica, diante do filho dela de 14 anos, e deve decidir nos próximos dias se leva ou não os réus a júri popular.

Segundo relatos de testemunhas e da própria Luana, num vídeo gravado antes de sua morte, a jovem foi espancada durante uma abordagem policial na noite de 8 de abril de 2016, no bairro Jardim Paiva II, uma das periferias de Ribeirão Preto, cidade a 312 km da capital paulista, apelidada de “Califórnia brasileira” ou “capital nacional do agronegócio”. Cinco dias depois, Luana morreu no hospital. A causa da morte foi uma isquemia cerebral causada por traumatismo crânio encefálico.
…
Segundo as testemunhas, no momento da abordagem Luana Barbosa exigiu a presença de uma policial mulher para realizar a revista. Para mostrar que era mulher, Luana levantou a camiseta. Nesse momento ela levou um soco e um chute que a derrubaram no chão. É a mesma versão contada pela família de Luana Barbosa há três anos.
(original)

Continue reading at: https://ponte.org/pms-acusados-de-matar-luana-barbosa-culpam-vitima-e-poder-dos-direitos-humanos/ (Source)

Original article: Brazil: state murder of lesbian remains unpunished 3 years later

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The hierarchy of Sexual assault: A gender non-conforming lesbian’s struggle for justice

Posted on 14/06/2019 by | 1 comment

by Pippa Fleming
daddigirlgriot.wordpress.com

I laid on a twin bed just inches off the ground weeping, “how the fuck did I get here?” as a hurricane hot flash and the smell of cat piss abruptly awakened me. Tears, sweat and funk permeated my sheets as I looked around the cluttered room feeling like a motherless child. As I rocked and held myself, I thought “death of a beloved and sexual assault feels the same.” First comes the shock and numbness, then come the people expressing empathetic sorrow and gestures of help. The body is laid to rest, then comes the repass with all that good soul food, while folks reminisce about the departed. When the last guest leaves, the door shutting behind them sparks the realization that you are alone and everyone else is going to get on with their lives, business as usual.

Call it intuition, a hunch or hindsight, I knew nothing was going to be done. I am a black gender non-conforming lesbian. Even with a narcissistic apology email from my perpetrator (that I’m going to share for shit’s and giggles) what could a black butch lesbian expect? I was disposable, nor was I a famous “queer” woman with a powerful platform like Ellen DeGeneres or Roxane Gay, sharing their stories of sexual assault… nor was I the wife of a famous basketball player like Steph Curry, who had a man arrested after making lewd comments about sexually assaulting her.

Continue reading: The hierarchy of Sexual assault: A gender non-conforming lesbian’s struggle for justice (source)

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(LVD) Toward a Black Lesbian Jurisprudence

Posted on 26/04/2019 by | 1 comment

by Theresa Raffaele Jefferson

TheresaRaffaeleJefferson.jpg

Black lesbians are everywhere and nowhere all at once. Throughout history we have been made invisible. This invisibility serves as a constant reminder that our culture, and indeed our very lives are considered at best illegitimate. At the same time, our identity as Black lesbians has been made hyper-visible when we have tried to remain in the wings. In these instances hyper-visibility becomes a means of punishment-a penalty for not understanding or refusing to abide by societal mandates. The experiences of Black lesbians in law and society illustrate this seeming invisibility/hyper-visibility paradox. Yet the tools of invisibility and hyper-visibility serve the same purpose-the legitimation of dominant cultural control. Invisibility and hyper-visibility compliment each other. They act in concert, as a dual cultural strategy of distortion, suppression, and punishment. A consistent Black lesbian jurisprudence has emerged whereby Black lesbians and our rights are erased at the intersection of our race, gender, and sexual orientation. This Note is an attempt to explore the lives of Black lesbians, to uncover law and society’s desire for us to remain seen or unseen depending on the context, and to provide a starting point for others to conduct future research.

Continue reading: https://racism.org/articles/
intersectionality/sexual-orientation/2616-toward-a-black-lesbian (source)

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Brazil: state murder of lesbian remains unpunished 3 years later

Posted on 21/04/2019 by | 2 comments

Luana Barbosa

After three years of Luana Barbosa’s murder, the case is still in the judicial process without effectively holding the aggressors accountable. Black, lesbian, mother and outlier, Luana was killed at age 34 due to brain injuries caused by three military police officers who beat her in the corner of her house, in the Jardim Paiva II neighbourhood, in the northern area of ​​Ribeirão Preto (São Paulo state). The assaults took place after Luana refused to be checked by the soldiers of the 51st Military Police Battalion (PM), demanding a female police presence. She was sent to the Emergency Unit of the Hospital de Clínicas (HC-EU), but died five days after the violence.
(Translated)

Luego de tres años del asesinato de Luana Barbosa, el caso aún sigue en proceso judicial sin responsabilizar efectivamente a los agresores. Negra, lesbiana, madre y periférica, Luana fue asesinada a los 34 años por lesiones cerebrales provocadas por tres policías militares que la golpearon en la esquina de su casa, en el barrio Jardim Paiva II, zona Norte de Ribeirão Preto (estado de São Paulo). Las agresiones ocurrieron después de que Luana se rehusó a ser revisada por los soldados del 51º Batallón de la Policía Militar (PM), exigiendo una presencia policial femenina. Ella fue encaminada la Unidad de Emergencia del Hospital de Clínicas (HC-UE), pero murió cinco días después de la violencia.
(Original)

Continue reading at: https://kaosenlared.net/brasil-madre-negra-y-lesbiana-asesinato-de-luana-barbosa-sigue-impune-luego-de-tres-anos/ (Source)

Update: Update: Brazilian court considering trial for police accused of killing Luana Barbosa in 2016

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Brazil: murders of lesbians increased by 237% in 3 years

Posted on 17/03/2019 by | 7 comments

marielle-franco-and-monica-benicio.jpg

Between 2014 and 2017 the murders of lesbian women increased by 237%.  The study ” Murdered by lesbophobia – The stories that no one has” made by “We – Feminists Dissidences” collective, shows both how crimes have increased and also that in most cases the murdered women were young and black.
In Brazil, lesbian women face many dangers, it goes beyond lesbophobia, it is also machismo, misogyny and racism. “Lesbians are sexually and affectively exclusively with women, but the main lesbian killers in Brazil are men,” says Cinthia Abreu, member of the World March of Women and March of Black Women of São Paulo.
(Translated)

Entre 2014 y 2017 el asesinatos de mujeres lesbianas aumentó un 237%. El estudio “Asesinadas por lesbofobia – Las historias que nadie cuenta”, hecho por el colectivo “Nosotras – Disidencias Feministas”, además de mostrar cómo han aumentado los crímenes demuestra que en la mayoría de los casos las mujeres asesinadas eran jóvenes y negras.
En Brasil las mujeres lesbianas se encuentran ante muchos peligros, va más allá de la lesbofobia, también es el machismo, la misoginia y el racismo. “Las lesbianas se relacionan sexual y afectivamente exclusivamente con mujeres, pero los principales asesinos de lesbianas en Brasil son hombres”, afirma Cinthia Abreu, integrante de la Marcha Mundial de Mujeres y Marcha de Mujeres Negras de São Paulo.
(Original)

Continue reading at: http://www.mirales.es/el-asesinato-a-mujeres-lesbianas-en-brasil-ha-aumentado-un-237/ (Source)

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We Need to Talk About Misogyny and the LGBT Community’s Erasure of Black Lesbian History

Posted on 10/07/2018 by | 1 comment

Claire Heuchan
AfterEllen.com

Stormé DeLarverie

“Finding the stories of our Black lesbian foremothers isn’t always easy. That’s not because there were none. Despite what the history books say, Black lesbian women have been around for hundreds of years, living lives filled with the extraordinary and the everyday. Women like Stormé DeLarverie have led revolutions. And yet Black lesbian stories are hard to find.

Those who have traditionally held the power to decide whose stories get to be recorded as history have been white, male, and invested in the social order of women living lives centered around men: the system of heteropatriarchy. For the most part, those historians considered the experiences and inner-lives of Black women beneath their notice. Close reflections on the average Black woman’s life at any point in the last few hundred years would also have held the risk of making it that much harder to sustain the myth that Black people weren’t really human, bringing home the ugly truths of white supremacy.

In addition, the stories of lesbian women have been deliberately erased from history across continents and culture. As a result, Black lesbian lives are that much more obscure. Men have hoped that in denying women the blueprint to a lesbian life, they could keep us all in the confines of heterosexuality – a never-ending source of sexual, reproductive, domestic, and emotional labor. But lesbian women throughout time have always found one another, even with the odds stacked against them – although many letters, diaries, and pictures that made up the proof have been consigned to the ash heap of history.”

Continue reading more of Claire Heuchan at: We Need to Talk About Misogyny and the LGBT Community’s Erasure of Black Lesbian History – AfterEllen (source)

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