Transiciones democraticas, violencia policial y organizaciones homosexuales y lesbicas en Buenos Aires y Montevideo

This study analyzes the emergence of gay and lesbian organizations and their history from 1984 to 1992 in Buenos Aires and Montevideo from a comparative perspective. The analysis addresses the internal debates and internal actions of these organizations and the surounding political scene in order to determine how to they took advantage of the political and cultural transformations that occurred at this stage, as well as the impact of the differential prevalence of police persecution of homosexuals on the different alliance systems, the mobilizing structures and the interpretive frameworks. The study also investigates the interaction between these organizations, the human rights movement and feminism and seeks to determine how access -or the lack of it- to a social and symbolic space of action had an impact on the strategies developed. Finally, the study explains the emergence of mixed-sex groups in Montevideo in the eighties, a distinctive feature of the Uruguayan case.