SOUNDING A QUEER REBELLION: LGBTI Musical Resistances in Latin America

Drawing on ethnomusicology, anthropology, sociology of religion, clinical and social psychology, law, social health, and performance-based activism, this Network aims to develop responses to violence with LGBTI musicians in DAC countries. The Network¿s short and long term outcomes will benefit LGBTI individuals and society by visibilising violence, shaping policies, and strengthening voices of repressed communities so they can resist on their own terms. In Latin America and the Caribbean four LGBTI people were murdered every day between 2014 and 2019, according to Latin American network SinViolencia LGBTI (2019). This statistic exemplifies the violent backlash to recent gains in LGBTI rights in the region. Misinformed anti-rights campaigns attacking a perceived `gay agenda¿ have helped socially conservative Evangelical and Pentecostal-backed governments to power, cementing LGBTI marginalisation. LGBTI youth protest against violence and discrimination with music. Compositions, audio-visual creations, protest music at demonstrations, and therapeutic LGBTI music events serve to represent, visibilise and build communities. Music spaces become communities of psychological healing where subversive voices find themselves and the power to face a violent society. This proposed Network is timely and urgent as it enables academia and civil society to join forces in order to: counter misinformation; and drive for implementation of LGBTI rights, and ensure protection of LGBTI communities. This pioneering network of scholars, practitioners and activists, predominately identifying as LGBTI, will benefit society by uniting established, but isolated, actors and stakeholders multiplying the impact of existing efforts to produce ground-breaking research and cultural interventions replicable across the region.