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Prejudice-Based Violence

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Gender and Sexuality in Latin America - Cases and Decisions

Part of the book series: Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice ((IUSGENT,volume 24))

Abstract

This chapter provides a theoretical framework of this particular type of violence. The chapter shows how violence against certain individuals that do not fit the heterosexual norm surpasses its individual dimension and acquires the quality of a message. After making a conceptual contribution on violence, sexual prejudice, heterosexuality as a rule, and the allocation of value to the difference, the chapter carefully examines the normative aspects of violence based on prejudice. The legal issues that arise from violence based on prejudice are illustrated by analyzing three different problems: the invisibility of the homophobic motives behind violence, which many times don’t make it into the official facts as constructed by the police and prosecutors; the risks of the double victimization; and the risks derived from the excessive emphasis on the difference or discretion in the application of the homosexual categories such as sexual orientation, gay or lesbian, among others. The chapter also deals with the concealment of extenuating factors such as ire and intense pain through the use of the so-called category “passion crimes.” The chapter ends with a reflection on the tensions between the private and the public spheres generated by expressions of non-normative sexual practices.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The author adds the letter “Q” when including persons who are queer, because its political value is rooted in its reference to practices of resistance against the absolute explanation of the social world according to hierarchical binaries, whether of gender, sexual orientation, or race among others.

  2. 2.

    See Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, Continuum Publishing Group, 1975.

  3. 3.

    Jean-Paul Sartre, “Portrait of the Anti-Semite” in Bigotry, Prejudice and Hatred (R. Baird & S.E. Rosenbaum eds., 1946), pp. 35–45.

  4. 4.

    Teodore Adorno, Else Frankel-Brunswick, Daniel J. Levinson Y R. Nevitt Sanford, The Authoritarian Personality, New York, Harper, 1950.

  5. 5.

    Jean Laplanche and Jean –Bertrand Pontalis, Diccionario de Psicoanálisis, Barcelona, Editorial Labor, 1981, p. 349.

  6. 6.

    Donald Moss, Hating in the First Person Plural. Psychoanalytic Essays on Racism, Homophia, Misogyny, and Terror, New York, Other Press, 2003.

  7. 7.

    Gregory Herek, “The Psychology of Sexual Prejudice” in Current Directions in Psychological Science. Vol. 9, No. 1, 1999, pp. 19–22.

  8. 8.

    Id.

  9. 9.

    See Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, The Epistemology of the Closet, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1990, p. 19.

  10. 10.

    Adrianne Rich, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” En The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, edited by H. Abelove, M. Aina Barale, and M. Halperin. New York, Routledge, 1993, p. 227. Judith Butler, Gender Trouble, New York, Routledge Press, 1999. Monique Wittig, The Straight Mind and Other Essays, Boston, Beacon Press, 1992, p. 28.

  11. 11.

    See, Gail Mason, “Not Our Kind of Hate Crime”, Law and Critique. Vol. 12, No. 3, 2001, p. 268.

  12. 12.

    Albert Memmi, Dominated Men. Boston, Beacon Press, 1971, p. 185.

  13. 13.

    Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology, publ. John Hopkins University Press, 1974.

  14. 14.

    Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York, Verso, 1991.

  15. 15.

    David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State. Malden, Blackwell Publishers Inc. 2002, p. 10.

  16. 16.

    Iris M. Young, “The Scaling of Bodies and the Politics of Identity” in Justice and the Politics of Difference, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1990, p. 146; Kenji Yoshino, “Covering” in Yale Law Journal. Vol. 111, No. 4, January, 2002, p. 771.

  17. 17.

    Id. p. 146.

  18. 18.

    Yoshino, op.cit, p. 771.

  19. 19.

    Young, op.cit, p. 146.

  20. 20.

    Id.

  21. 21.

    The author thanks Julia Alejandra Morales for her assistance in the research of legal cases and legislation. For useful documents dedicated to identifying the state of relevant legislations for LGBTQ communities, see International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA): LGBT World Legal Wrap Up Survey, compiled by Daniel Ottosson, International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), November Edition, 2006. And World Legal Survey, Laws Prohibiting Discrimination Based On Sexual Orientation, 2002. www.ilga.org

  22. 22.

    Brazil has a rich legal and social tradition of resistance against violence based on prejudice. I am not studying the situation of Brazil in this piece. For an interesting article on the topic see: Carrara, S, Vianna, A et al. 2001. Lethal Violence Against Homosexuals in Rio de Janeiro City: General Characteristics. http://www.clam.org.br/pdf/lethalviolence.pdf

  23. 23.

    LGBT World Legal Wrap Up Survey, compiled by Daniel Ottosson, International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), November Edition, 2006.

  24. 24.

    Compilation by Mauricio Albarracín from Colombia Diversa in “Balance sobre Violencia por homofobia en Colombia”, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, April 2007.

  25. 25.

    See “Voces Excluidas: legislación y derechos de lesbianas, gays, bisexuales y transgeneristas en Colombia,” Colombia Diversa, Bogotá, 2005; “Derechos humanos de lesbianas, gays, bisexuales y transgeneristas en Colombia” Colombia Diversa, Bogotá, 2005, www.colombiadiversa.org

  26. 26.

    The information in this section goes until 2006.

  27. 27.

    Reports available at www.cha.org.ar

  28. 28.

    www.movilh.cl

  29. 29.

    Colombian Constitutional Court, Rulings C-507 de 1999; T-097 de 1994, and C-431 de 2004.

  30. 30.

    “http://www.colombiadiversa.org”, www.colombiadiversa.org. For the poll see “http://www.promoverciudadanía.com”, www.promoverciudadanía.com. For the press note see “Una ciudad poco abierta a los gays” in El Tiempo, 19 de noviembre de 2006. “http://www.eltiempo.terra.com”, www.eltiempo.terra.com

  31. 31.

    See http://www.letraese.org.mx/contracrimenes.htm; http://www.ilga.org/news; http://www.cesarsalgado.net/200306/030606.htm

  32. 32.

    See http://www.mhol.org.pe

  33. 33.

    Personal conversation with Dr. Andrés Rodríguez (February 2007). Notes taken from his presentation: “Homicidios de hombres gay en Bogotá” at the Seminario Internacional sobre violencia por homofobia, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, April 12, 2007.

  34. 34.

    http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/judi/2006-06-11/ARTICULO-WEB-_NOTA_INTERIOR-2941878.html By María Paulina Ortiz.

  35. 35.

    Case No 11829. Colombian Supreme Court of Justice. April 4, 2002.

  36. 36.

    This complaint was submitted before the Regional Court of Social and Cultural Rights of Women by Fundacion Causana from Ecuador. All the excerpts are taken from the Tribunal Memoirs.

  37. 37.

    Memoria del Tribunal Regional por los Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales de las Mujeres, p. 135.

  38. 38.

    See Yoshino, op.cit.

  39. 39.

    Memoria del Tribunal Regional por los Derechos Económicos, Sociales Culturales de las Mujeres, p. 135.

  40. 40.

    Id. pp. 132–133.

  41. 41.

    G. Mason, “Not our Kind of Hate Crime” op.cit, p. 275.

  42. 42.

    Wittig, op.cit, p. 28.

  43. 43.

    Informe MOVILH-DIVINE: la justicia que merecen las víctimas (August 2002) and Informe MOVILH-DIVINE II (2004), www.movilh.cl

  44. 44.

    For this distinction see Nancy Fraser, 1997. “Rethinking the Public Sphere” in Justice Interruptus. Critical Reflections on the “Postsocialist” Condition. New York: Routledge.

  45. 45.

    Instituto Nacional Penitenciariao y Carcelario (INPEC).

  46. 46.

    “Ruben Badin y otors v. Provincia de Buenos Aires”, Corte Suprema, 19/10/1995, Published; JA 1995-IV-142. Fallos 318, 2002, Lexis No 954063.

  47. 47.

    Colombian Constitutional Court, Judgment T-153 of 1998 (emphasis added).

  48. 48.

    The arguments for this analysis come from my personal communication with Natalia Milisenda, the plaintiff’s lawyer, and from Cronicas Marcianas, a report by Andrea Lacombe for CLAM in http://www.clam.org.br/publique/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?from_info_index=51&infoid=8504&sid=21

  49. 49.

    See Superior Court of the Judicial District, Criminal Section, Pereira, August, 2004.

  50. 50.

    Fourth Circuit Penal Court, Dosquebradas, Risaralda. June 7, 2004.

  51. 51.

    The expression is taken from Gail Mason, “Not Our Kind of Crime”, op.cit.

  52. 52.

    See Maria Mercedes Gomez, “Los usos jerarquicos y excluyentes de la violencia”, op.cit.

  53. 53.

    Amnesty International, “Scarred bodies, hidden crimes”, AMR 23/040/2004 (emphasis added).

  54. 54.

    Kenji Yoshino, “Covering” op.cit.

  55. 55.

    Elizabeth Young-Bruehl, The Anatomy of Prejudices, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. op.cit, p. 158.

  56. 56.

    Id. pp. 157–158.

  57. 57.

    Id. p. 34.

  58. 58.

    Id. p. 158.

  59. 59.

    Donald Moss, Hating in the First Person Plural. Psychoanalytic Essays on Racism, Homophia, Misogyny, and Terror, New York: Other Press, 2003 Moss, op.cit, p. 285.

  60. 60.

    Id. pp. 285–286.

  61. 61.

    See Mason, op.cit.

  62. 62.

    See http://www.transgenderlawcenter.org/gwen/index.html; http://www.sfgate.com

  63. 63.

    See Arthur Dong, “Licensed to Kill”. Deep Focus Film, 1997. Dong, op.cit.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

    María Mercedes Gómez

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  1. María Mercedes Gómez
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Correspondence to María Mercedes Gómez .

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  1. Medrano 1366, Buenos Aires, 1179, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Cristina Motta

  2. , Washington College of Law, American University, Massachusetts Ave. N.W. 4801, Washington, 20016, District of Columbia, USA

    Macarena Saez

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Gómez, M.M. (2013). Prejudice-Based Violence. In: Motta, C., Saez, M. (eds) Gender and Sexuality in Latin America - Cases and Decisions. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 24. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6199-5_8

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