At an LGBT rights protest in Mexico City in June 1980, the communist Mario Rivas declared that his party “strove to be an ally to the movement for sexual liberation.” Despite a new platform that recognized sexual liberty, Rivas was expelled from the Mexican Communist Party for his speech. This moment has often been characterized as another manifestation of the Left’s enduring homophobia. However, this talk demonstrates that the expulsion of Rivas may have had more to do with the limits of a tolerance-based sexual rights platform than with the outbreak of homophobia.

Speaker

Robert Franco is an Assistant Professor of History at Kenyon College. His current manuscript, Revolution in the Sheets: Sexuality and Tolerance in the Mexican Left, explores the history of homophobia, heterosexism, and hostility towards sexual politics in Mexico's leftist parties and organizations. His work has appeared in the Journal of the History of Sexuality, Radical History Review, and Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies.