Friday, June 02, 2006

Update: Photos from this week's anti-homophobia vigil in Peru

Both Diario de Lima Gay and Deambiente.com have photos from Tuesday night's anti-homophobia candle-light vigil (just click on the hyperlinks to see them).

Diario de Lima Gay reports that the vigil begun at 8pm with an act in which shirts and pieces of cloth were laid down in front of the La Merced Church, representing those lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Peru who have fallen victims to homophobic - and transphobic - violence. Candles were lit and placed on the ground. Some participants threw flower petals as well.

At 10pm close to a hundred individuals made their way to San Martin Plaza, some leaving flower petals over the streets of Lima. A lesbian performance group, Proyecto Experiencia, awaited them with a symbolic street theatre performance. The vigil then made its way to the Justice Palace, where police kept close distance while participants laid down the shirts on the floor once again and a banner was unfurled with the legend "LA HOMOFOBIA MATA" (or "homophobia kills" - photo above courtesy of Jorge A. Chavez and Edu Stagnaro).

The vigil ended at midnight with a minute of silence after Tito Bracamonte from the Homosexual Movement of Lima (MoHL) urged the crowd to eradicate homophobia from Peruvian society.

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