Abstract

BUCHELY, Lina  and  SALAS, Natalia. Trans-Neoliberalism? A Critical Reading of Colombian LGBTI NGOS and Trans Women's Rights Activism. Desafíos [online]. 2019, vol.31, n.1, pp.45-81. ISSN 0124-4035.  https://doi.org/10.12804/revistas.urosario.edu.co/desafios/a.6640.

Based on criticism of NGOzation movements as a way to domesticate and depoüticize collective action, this work discusses the operation of NGOs that defend the rights of the LGBTI population -specifically trans women- in three Colombian cities: Cali, Bogotá and Barranquilla. Using ethnographic techniques, the authors analyze three organizations that defend the rights associated to sexual diversity and focus on their interactions with the trans-population, maintaining that the organizations defraud their operational goals in at least three ways: (i) they focus on legal mobilization -which promotes symbolic rather than material changes- as their main strategy; (ii) they reinforce polemic gender stereotypes that end up effecting the very population they defend; and (iii) they maintain relationships of instrumentalization, cooptation, and complementarity with the people they claim to represent.

Keywords : LGBTI; NGOs; strategic litigation; NGOzation; legal fetishism.

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