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Puerto Vallarta News NetworkHealth & Beauty | May 2009 

Sexuality Conference to Focus on Role of the Church
email this pageprint this pageemail usTherese Margolis - The News
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(Jupiter Images Corporation)
The eighth annual Cultural Week of Sexual Diversity, or SCDS, is slated to get under way on Monday. The multidisciplinary week of events will include conferences, discussions, book presentations, plays and a photographic exhibition.

For its 2009 edition, the yearly forum, organized by the National Institute of Anthropology and History, or

INAH, will for the first time include the topic of the Catholic Church and sexuality.

Because of the quantity of requests to include the role of the Catholic Church in discussions of sexual diversity, coordinator Edith Yesenia Peña Sánchez explained that SCDS has invited religious leaders to participate in roundtables and conferences.

Peña Sánchez stressed that homosexuality and transexuality must be addressed by society in order to eliminate discrimination in all areas of modern life.

"Nothing defines a person more than his or her sexual identity and preferences," said Lilia Hernández Alba-rrán, who is an anthropological researcher at the INAH and who will be leading one of the roundtable conferences of the SCDS.

"It is crucial that parents, teachers and religious leaders understand this simple fact because they provide guidance to our young people."

Many teenagers and young adults in Mexico are so conflicted with their own sexual identity and the lack of objective information that they become depressed or introverted, she said.

"This can lead to the use of drugs or even to suicide," Hernández Albarrán said.

"It is up to society to change these prejudices and learn to be more open and tolerant," she said.

FOCUS ON WOMEN

Another topic that will be covered during the forum will be the issue of femicide, particularly in Ciudad Juárez.

"In the first three months of this year, a total of 17 women have been murdered in or around Ciudad Juárez," Hernández Albarrán said.

She said that during the SCDS forum a special roundtable conference showing how these murders are related to sexual abuse of women will be held during a three-day pre-congress seminar on Friday.

"We have to wake up the public about femicide," she said.

"We cannot even hope to have sexual equality and justice until hate crimes such as these are halted."

The five-day cultural week, which will be held at the installations of the National Museum of Anthropology in Chapultepec Park and at the National School of Anthropology and History in Colonia Isidro Fabela, will also include the participation of more than 80 different academic, municipal, state and federal agencies, said José Antonio Pompa, one of the assistant organizers for the SCSD.

"We want to incorporate as many specialists and areas of social and anthropological studies as possible," he said, "because the issue of sexual diversity and equality incorporates nearly every aspect of modern-day life."

Pompa said that while public discussions on sexual diversity and equality have become more common in the last five decades, there is still much work to be done to curb discrimination and marginalization.

"They are issues that have always existed, but for centuries, discussions of these topics have been kept in the closet," he said.

"Now, we are confronting them, and that is the first step in becoming a more egalitarian society."

MORE INFO

• The five-day Cultural Week of Sexual Diversity congress will be held at the National Museum of Anthropology, located on Avenida Paseo de la Reforma and Gandhi in Chapultepec Park, and at the National School of Anthropology and History, located at Periférico Sur and Zapote s/n in Col. Isidro Fabela from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. May 25 though May 30.

• All the conferences and roundtables are open free of charge to all interested parties. Those who attend at least 80 percent of the congress will receive an official certificate of participation from the INAH.



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