LGBTQ Activism and Performance

In his book Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance, Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes analyzes the social and political contexts and implications of Puerto Rican drag and transgender performance in theater, television, and other forms of cultural production in both Puerto Rico and the United States. La Fountain-Stokes proposes “translocura” as an epistemology that contends with both the new social modalities and the reality of violence and death facing many queer and trans people in Puerto Rico and elsewhere. 

This special volume of CENTRO: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies titled Revisiting Queer Puerto Rican Sexualities/Revisitando las sexualidades puertorriqueñas queer, edited by Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes and Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel, aims to explore queer Puerto Rican literature, culture, politics, and scholarship on the island and in the diaspora.  Building on the first CENTRO Journal on this subject in 2007, this journal includes articles about gay literature and culture, women writers, activist histories and presents, and more.

“Getting F****d in Puerto Rico: Metaphoric Provocations and Queer Activist Interventions” tells the story of the efforts to repeal the sodomy laws in Puerto Rico that were in place from 1974 until 2003. Juana María Rodríguez outlines the activism and legal paths taken to repeal Artículo 103, and the tension surrounding the Puerto Rican government’s attempts to reinforce sodomy laws in the context of US Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which ruled that sodomy laws were unconstitutional.  She also addresses the contradictions embedded in Puerto Rico’s sodomy laws, which the island stood by even while attempting to court LGBTQ tourists from the US. 

In this piece, Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes surveys key developments in queer Puerto Rican history.  He incorporates discussion of several key issues including legal issues, politics, education, violence, and more as well as a timeline of key events spanning from 2002 to 2018.

In this chapter, Rivera Santana and Ruiz Vega study Bad Bunny’s influence on the expanding space for queer culture in reggaeton. They argue that Bad Bunny makes space for expressions of femininity and queerness through the imagery in his music videos such as “Yo Perreo Sola.” Rivera Santana and Ruiz Vega also examine the ways he has brought spotlight to queer and women artists in the reggaeton genre, such as Young Miko and Rainao, noting their increased streams after collaborating with Bad Bunny. They conclude that Bad Bunny has made space for queer voices in reggaetón through his collaborations and music videos. 

Vázquez Sanabria and Mendoza analyze Bad Bunny’s performance as expressions of queer or “cuir” culture and their reception in Puerto Rico. They discuss instances including the controversy surrounding his 2022 VMAs kiss and the “Yo perreo sola” music video, among other occurrences.  Vázquez Sanabria and Mendoza place Bad Bunny’s work in a larger context of queer organizing and resistance in Puerto Rico and the related diaspora to show how Bad Bunny brings attention to homophobia, transmisogyny, and repression of the LGBTQ+ community in Puerto Rico.