ENGLISH VERSION
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico, June of 1999
To the Committee of Sexual Diversity
To the lesbian, gay, transsexual and bisexual community:
We are grateful that you have allowed us the opportunity to say our word on this, the 21st March of Lesbian, Gay, Transsexual and Bisexual Pride, which has convened some of the best of sexual diversity in Mexico.
May all of you accept the greetings of the zapatistas on this day of struggle for the dignity of, and respect for, difference.
For a very long time, homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals and bisexuals have had to live and to die concealing their difference, suffering in silence persecutions, contempt, humiliations, extortion, blackmail, insults, violence and assassinations.
The different had to bear having their humanness reduced for the simple fact of not being in accord with a nonexistent sexual norm, but rather hypocritically converted into a banner for intolerance and segregation.
Victims at every social level, objects of jokes, gossip, insults and death, those different in their sexual preference remained quiet in the face of one of the oldest injustices in history.
No more.
From all social sectors, from all corners of the country, from all workplaces, from studies, from struggles, from life: a human demand is raised: respect and recognition for the rights of the lesbian, gay,transsexual and bisexual community.
Participating in today's jornada for the recognition of sexual diversity in a visible form are those who, fed up with hiding their different nature, have courage and a fighting spirit in their hearts and in their eyes.
There is nothing to hide. Neither sexual preference, nor rage over impotence in the face of incomprehension of a government and a sector of society that thinks that everything that is not like themselves is abnormal and grotesque.
What do lesbians, homosexuals, transsexuals and bisexuals have to be ashamed of?
Let those that rob and kill with impunity be ashamed: the government!
Let those who persecute the different be ashamed!
But it is not just those who can make themselves seen and heard who are participating in this day of struggle.
Many must conceal themselves - by times from themselves - but they do not for that reason renounce a right that belongs to every human being: that of respect for their dignity, without regard to the color of their skin, their language, their income, their culture, their religious belief, their political ideology, their weight, their stature or their sexual preference.
For those who are present at this mobilization, our admiration for your courage and audacity to make yourselves seen and heard, for your proud, dignified and legitimate 'Ya Basta!'
Our best wishes to your organized existence.
Our support for your struggle and your demands.
For those who are not here, but who are, our best wishes and hope that some day you can be, and be here, without pain, without shame, without fear.
We zapatistas, men, women, and other, but still zapatistas, greet lesbian, gay, transsexual and bisexual dignity.
Long life to your fighting spirit, and a different tomorrow, that is, one that is more just and human, for all those who are different.
Vale. Salud and may, one day, there not be even a corner for silence to hide in.
>From the mountains of the Mexican southeast.
Subcomandante insurgente Marcos.
Mexico, June of 1999.