Míriam Martinho

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Martinho and the second or maternal family name is Rodrigues.
Míriam Martinho
Born Míriam Martinho Rodrigues
1954
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Nationality Brazilian
Occupation activist
Known for feminism journalism, LGBT activism

Míriam Martinho (born 1954) is one of the leading feminists in Brazil and part of the second generation of feminist journalists, who emerged in the 1980s. She was one of the first people to bring lesbianism openly into the fold of feminism and founded one of the first Lesbian-Feminist organizations in the country. She and Rosely Roth gained recognition for staging a protest, known at the "Brazilian Stonewall" at Ferro's Bar in 1983. She has written for numerous LGBT and feminist journals and has submitted expert testimony on the state of the LGBT community in Brazil.

Biography

Míriam Martinho was born in 1954 in Rio de Janeiro and grew up in the city of São Paulo. She is one of the pioneering figures of Feminism in Brazil[1] and the Brazilian Homosexual Movement.[2]

The feminist movement in Brazil, became fairly active in 1975. After the II Congress of the Paulista Women there was a split between leftist leaders and feminists. At that time, feminists were supporting the concept of gender, rather than class, as a focus for political empowerment and equality. The schism resulted in the feminists moving forward on their own and a flurry of magazines and critical thought on feminism emerged. Many feminist organizations were founded each with specific themes: education, health, political empowerment, sexuality, violence, among others.[1] Martinho was part of this movement, founding the first lesbian feminist group, Grupo Lésbico-Feminista, in 1979. In 1981 the group disbanded [2] and part of the members went on to form the Grupo Ação Lésbica-Feminista (GALF), the most active of whom were Martinho and Rosely Roth. In 1989, GALF reformed as an NGO called Um Outro Olhar.[1]

In 1981, Martinho began producing an activist newspaper called "ChanacomChana" as the voice of GALF. Sometimes it was produced triannually and sometimes quarterly, but it circulated through the 1980s. It was the first journal to expand the idea of including lesbians in the feminist movement, which was seen as very radical at the time. In 1989, when GALF was formed as an NGO, the journal changed its name to coincide with that of the NGO, "Um Outro Olhar" and it primary began to focus on LGBT issues with feminism as a secondary focus.[1]

The publication "ChanacomChana" was directly responsible for the event that has been called the "Brazilian Stonewall". On 19 August 1983, a protest was held against Ferro's Bar, known for its lesbian clientele, in São Paulo, because they refused to allow ChanacomChana to be distributed. Martin and Roth staged a demonstration, calling together artists, intellectuals and lawyers, to protest.[3] According to Martin, the difficulty started almost a month earlier when the owners ejected she and Roth for trying to distribute the paper in the bar. There was a physical altercation and they were banned from distributing the paper. They planned the demonstration to protest the ban and got a lot of press coverage because their approach was pro-active and non-violent,[4] but also because they were open about fighting for their rights in a time when many lesbians were in hiding. After the protest, the bar developed an even larger lesbian following.[5]

Since the 1990s, Martinho has been involved in an endeavor to improve the health care provided to women, but especially lesbians. As many of them do not disclose their status to health practitioners, she feels they are extremely vulnerable. In 2003, she presented research for periodic review of the state of the LGBT population in Brazil. Her report was highlighted by the US State Department and the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada in their evaluation.[6]

Martinho works as a journalist and serves at the editor in chief of the websites Umoutroolhar and Contraocorodoscontentes two of the most important portals of Intelligentsia Lesbian in Brazil.

Honors

Selected works

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Cardoso, Elizabeth (September–December 2004). "Imprensa feminista brasileira pós-1974". Revista Estudos Feministas (in Portuguese). São Paulo, Brazil: Escola de Comunicações e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo. 12 (Special Florianópolis). ISSN 0104-026X. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  2. 1 2 Rosenbloom, Rachel (editor) (1996). Unspoken rules: Sexual Orientation and Women's Human Rights ([1st ed.]. ed.). London: Cassell. pp. 21–23. ISBN 978-0-304-33764-4. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  3. ↑ Franco Conde, Michele Cunha (2004). "O Movimento Homossexual Brasileiro, Sua Trajetória e Seu Papel na Ampliação do Exercício da Cidadania" (PDF). Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Filosofia (in Portuguese). Brazil: Programa de Pós- Graduação em Sociologia da Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Filosofia da Universidade Federal de Goiás. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 11, 2006. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  4. ↑ "Dia do Orgulho Lésbico: entrevista com Míriam Martinho". Homomento (in Portuguese). São Paulo, Brazil: Homomento. 19 August 2009. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  5. ↑ Dimenstein, Gilberto (26 June 2003). "Bar das lésbicas entra na história" (in Portuguese). São Paulo, Brazil: Árvore da vida. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  6. ↑ "Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada: Responses to Information Requests - Brazil" (PDF). Justice.gov. Washington DC: US Department of Justice. 19 December 2005. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/15/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.