The Importance of Celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month
Interviews
Mariano Soila, Go-To-Market Manager for Warner Bros. Discovery spoke with myGwork about the importance of celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month, discussing his personal experience of understanding LGBTQ+ history and giving advice to those who want to better their understanding of the topic. He revealed how his role at Warner Bros. Discovery allowed him to finally celebrate the occasion in a way that he couldn’t before.
Please introduce yourself and tell us about your role at your organization.
My name is Mariano Soila and I have the role of go-to-market manager for Warner Bros. Discovery. I am responsible for the execution of all strategic marketing efforts within the WBD’s linear TV portfolio as well as the streaming services in the south cone of Latin America (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay).
I also lead WBD’s Argentina chapter of the LGBTQ+ PRIDE BRG
Have you celebrated LGBTQ+ History Month before? If you have, how?
The ‘Gay History Month’ is not a common celebration in Argentina, but other commemorations and festive dates linked to the LGBTQ+ community such as the World Day Against Homophobia, the International Day of Trans People Rights, the Transgender Day of Remembrance, the International Pride Day (June) and Argentina’s Pride Day (November) amongst others.
The past year, Warner Bros Discovery celebrated LGBTQ+ History Month and it was the first time for me to celebrate it, with the joy of being part of a commemorative video with testimonials together with other WBD’s colleagues around the world and representing Latin America.
Why is LGBTQ+ History Month important to you?
LGBTQ+ History Month reminds and help us reconnect with those people whose tireless fight for the rights and visibility of LGBTQ+ community, to let us enjoy most of the things that today we take for granted. Almost one decade ago, those things were considered sinful, amoral, criminal or justifications for persecution, imprisonment or hate crimes and today, in many geographies and cultures, the LGBTQ+ community is still sentenced to death and their voices are silenced in events of public interest or people are most of the times made invisible due to gender choice and sexual orientation.
Nowadays, because of the heroic action of many people, we can get married, start families, adopt, publicly express love to our beloved ones, and enjoy a more empathetic, diverse, egalitarian, and inclusive world.
October 27th 2018. On my wedding day, which was only possible thanks to the commitment and struggle of LGBTQ+ people to whom we owe the rights we enjoy today.
Image Credit: Mariano Soila.
Do you think LGBTQ+ people are represented in history books enough? Why?
Many people belonging to the LGBTQ+ community have had leading roles throughout universal history. However, for centuries, the transfer of knowledge through books and historical records was in the hands of the Catholic Church and, consequently, biased by a heteronormative worldview.
In this context, LGBTQ+ community personalities have been sweetened by this perspective, seeking to make them fit with the parameters of "normality" typical of the Western culture.
In this way, potential prominent figures who might be part of the LGBTQ+ community were underrepresented without their true diverse identity fully coming to light.
Were you taught about LGBTQ+ history in school?
No, I was not. I went to a Catholic school for boys. If we had received education about LGBTQ+ History as part of the regular educational curriculum, homosexuality would not have been perceived as something to be laughed at, punished for, or judged for and many of us would not have suffered bulling, exclusion or experienced bad and uncomfortable moments while growing up and forging our personalities.
If you could add anything from the history of the LGBTQ+ human rights movement to the school curriculum, what would you add?
In Argentina, there is a book in Spanish that I would like to mention and recommend. This book is ‘Historia de la Homosexualidad en Argentina’ and compiles the history of the LGBTQ+ community in my country from the times of the Spanish conquest of the 'Río de La Plata' to the proclamation of the equal marriage law in Argentina in 2010, that was written by Osvaldo Bazan, a journalist and writer who belongs to the LGBTQ+ community.
This book could be a clear example of the type of LGBTQ+ History book that young people, regardless of whether or not they belong to a minority or the LGBTQ+ community, should read in order to be able to empathize and understand everything that we have gone throughout history and despite this, the way we have contributed to the deed of the cultural identities of each of our nations, in this specific case of Argentina.
What advice would you give someone wanting to learn more about LGBTQ+ history?
My recommendation would be to open heart and mind first and then seek for information by diving into books, surfing the web, meeting, and spending quality time with LGBTQ+ people from different backgrounds and ages. That would be a perfect blend between both LGBTQ+ History and LGBTQ+ Living History.
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