On this day in 1977, following fraudulent elections that put General Romero in power, the right-wing Salvadoran military viciously attacked anti-government protesters in San Salvador, killing between 200 and 1,500 people.

The protest was anti-government in character, and took place following fraudulent elections earlier that year, in which the National Opposing Union (Spanish: "Unión Nacional Opositora", UNO), a political coalition composed of the Christian Democratic Party, the National Revolutionary Movement, and the Nationalist Democratic Union, had "lost" to the right-wing, military-controlled National Conciliation Party.

On February 28th, 1977, a crowd of political demonstrators gathered in downtown San Salvador to protest the electoral fraud. Security forces arrived on the scene and opened fire, resulting in a massacre as they indiscriminately killed demonstrators and bystanders alike.

Estimates of the number of civilians killed range between 200 and 1,500. The casualties were underreported by the New York Times, which reported on March 1st, 1977 that only six people had been killed. President Molina blamed the protests on "foreign Communists" and immediately exiled a number of top UNO party members from the country.

One of the consequences of the massacre was the formation of "February 28 Popular Leagues" (Spanish: "Ligas Populares 28 de Febrero", LP-28), a movement launched in September 1977 by the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), functioning as its mass front.

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  • BeamBrain [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I'm getting dogpiled in a Discord because I said "If you use the f-slur, I'm going to assume you're a homophobe"

    • Cromalin [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      are the people dogpiling you gay? i assume it's straight people whining

      • BeamBrain [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        They're LGBT. But I'm bisexual. It's a bit complicated.

        • Cromalin [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          it's definitely more complicated when talking to queer people about it, reclaiming slurs is definitely something i think is valid but you need to be aware that probably most people saying it are homophobic

          especially because it's not like there's any word that can describe queerness that hasn't been used as a slur regularly by shitheads

          • BeamBrain [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            They were completely unsympathetic and dismissive when I talked about constantly hearing the word in a hateful, abusive context growing up.

              • Cromalin [she/her]
                ·
                2 years ago

                i don't think it's unrecoverable, but it's definitely much more stigmatized than other slurs. i think the number of historical queer activists who were self proclaimed f-slurs means it's worth thinking about as not quite that black and white

              • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
                ·
                2 years ago

                This. The f-word is still actively used in a very harmful manner by bigots while queer has been recovered, maybe some years down the road the f-word will be able to but now? No way.

                • Cromalin [she/her]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  i do think there's room to have the debate here and now, and i still remember when 'gay' was a catchall for anything negative. it's not like queer became reclaimed while no one was using it harmfully, and i still hear people using it in homophobic and transphobic ways regularly

                  but i agree that we aren't there yet, at least not outside small queer communities where a lot of trust is built up over time

            • Cromalin [she/her]
              ·
              2 years ago

              yeah, obviously there's a big difference between asking people not to use a word that's a serious trigger for you and broader musings on the potential reclamation of slurs

            • artificialset [she/her, fae/faer]
              ·
              2 years ago

              I struggled with reconciling hearing it casually with the history I've had with that word. Being around variety of queer friends and listening to their perspectives helped me be at peace with hearing it reclaimed (though it's not one I personally want to use)