Initiatives to politically mobilize lesbian women and gay men in Latin America have had parallel and interrelated paths in progressive social movements, leftist organizations, and communist parties since early 1970s. The first waveof organizations focused on deconstructing social ideas and stereotypes related to lesbian and gay people and denounced sexual oppression. The 1980s witnessed political opportunities in some countries. Human rights activism was a key element in the struggle for redemocratization. For homosexual militancy, it was the beginning of activism framed into rights discourses and the fight for equality. Lesbian activism inside the feminist movement continued its expansion at regional levels. It was also at this time that Latin America started to suffer the consequences of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The need to create policies to deal with the impact of AIDS forced a closer working relationship among gay men's organizations, international cooperation agencies, and health services. The beginning of the new century witnessed two important changes in Latin American LGBT activism: a more institutionalized, rights‐based organization, with a closer relationship to state institutions; and a diversification and exponential increment in the number of groups, not only of gay men, but also of lesbians and transgender people.