Sex and the Sandinistas Showing on Out on Channel Four, Wednesday 17 July 1991 at 9pm Reviewed by Rebecca Flemming 'Homosexuality in Nicaragua is about courage, one gay man says in Sex and the Sandinistas, and courage certainly overflows from this video documentary, along with the strength, vibrancy and creativity of the Nicaraguan lesbian and gay movement.
It tells a simple and inspiring story - the story of the Nicaraguan revolution told by lesbians and gay men who have been a part of that. revolution from the outset and who continue to fight for the freedom it stands for, constantly asserting that their struggle for liberation is an integral and central part of the revolutionary process.
The voices of Nicaraguan lesbian and gay activists speak loud and clear through the video. They joined the FSLN very early on - making Molotov cocktails in their back rooms, fighting in guerrilla celis - motivated by the desperate poverty and oppresVideo preview sion all around them under the US-backed Somoza dietatorship.
Somé were expelled when they came out as lesbian or gay, others hid their sexuality, considering it a secondary issue after the urgent and overriding task of national liberation.
But after the victory of 1979, lesbians and gay men found a new space to explore and give time to themselves and their specific concerns amongst all the dramatic economic, social and political upheavals of the time. There was no sudden transformation in their situation.
Lesbians and gay men did not wake up one morning to find that they had been liberated. The weight of the Roman Catholic Church and the traditional machista culture remained entrenched and powerful, but not unchallenged, and small, informal lesbian and gay activist and social groups began to meet and organise.
Ironically, but not without precedent, it was the AIDS crisis which provided an opening both for the more publicand formal establishment of lesbian and gay organisation and for the beginning of a dialogue between the nascent lesbian and gay, movement and the Sandinista leadership.
Though the majority of the HIV and AIDS cases were, and remain, amongst the heterosexual population, it was lesbians and gay men, slapstick race against timeto reafter contact with lesbian brigadistas from San Francisco, who first took up the issue and who began to hold safersex workshops.
These developments prompted an immediate and supportive response from the Sandinista Minister for Health, leading to the setting up of CEP - SIMA, the Collec tive of Popular Educators on AIDS.
Of course it is impossible to talk about HIV and AIDS without discussing sexuality, including lesbian and gay sexuality. And as activists gained experience and confidence they started to estab lish separate lesbian and gay