Twenty Years of the Marcha por la Diversidad in Uruguay (2005-2024)

Identity Transformations and Relations with the Broad Front Left

Abstract

In 2005, amid the expectations surrounding the arrival of the Frente Amplio (FA) to government, the Uruguayan LGBTIQA+ movement’s march ceased to be called the “Pride March” and became the “March for Diversity”. This change reflected an intention to articulate the struggle against discrimination based on sexual diversity with other forms of inequality through the lenses of social justice and equal rights.

During the Frente Amplio administrations (2005-2009, 2010-2014, 2015-2019), the march became one of the largest public events on the local calendar and a key space for advancing landmark legislation, including the decriminalization of abortion, equality marriage, and the regulation of cannabis, measures collectively known as the Agenda de Derechos. Although numerous conflicts emerged, the march became closely associated with the partisan left.

Drawing on an understanding of identity as contingent and contested, this article examines two interrelated dimensions: how Diversidad was conceived and what political subject/project it sought to express; and how this construction interacted with the Uruguayan political field, particularly with the Frente Amplio and left-wing identities.

To address these questions, the article focuses on the conceptualization of Diversidad and its relationship with political opportunity structures, as well as on the configuration of the march’s organizational space. The analysis is based on the MPD’s public statements during the period and on press coverage of four moments in which popular consultations took place and on which the march took a public stance, contesting key aspects of national politics.