In 1986, he published as his first major work, the book Incontables, a compilation of short stories[5] under the feminist publication label, Ergo Sum.

[6] A year later, he co-founded a performance collective that used the tactics of intervention and disruption of events to raise public consciousness about the struggles of minorities in Chile.

He entered the meeting in high heels and with makeup on his face depicting a hammer and sickle extending from his mouth to his left eyebrow.

In an interview the writer would explain his choice of name change as the following, "Lemebel is a gesture of femininity, to engrave a maternal last name, to acknowledge my (washer) mother in light of the illegality of homosexual(s) and transvestite(s)."

The first intervention/performance of "The Mares of the Apocalypse" was on the afternoon of October 22, 1988, during the second installment of the Pablo Neruda prize to poet Raúl Zurita in La Chascona.

In addition to that, Casas rushed over to, at the time candidate for senator and future Chilean president, Ricardo Lagos and kissed him on the mouth.

Both writers often turned into agents of their own text and created an interpretation of homosexual reality and an interruption of institutional discussions during the age of the dictator.

In these chronicles Lemebel referenced the many marginalized setting of Santiago which he linked to themes of homosexuality, prostitution and poverty, some of which were taboo to talk about at the time.

That same year he published "Loco afán: Crónicas de si dario," his second book of chronicles that spoke about themes like AIDS and the marginalization of transvestites.

After the arrest of Augusto Pinochet in a London hospital, he created "The Clinic" whose editor Patricio Ferrández he asked to leave everything in it uncensored.

In 1995 and 1996, Lemebel wrote two books in a chronicle and hybrid literary style,[3] a combination of reportage, memoir, public address, fiction and socio-political historical analysis.

In 1995, he published La Esquina es mi corazón: Crónica urbana (The Corner is My Heart), writing about Chilean history from the perspectives of young adults raised in poor neighborhoods and those who are stigmatized socially.

That same year he also participated in the Festival of Guadalajara, Mexico, in replacement of Bolaño who had rejected the offer, and accepted praise for his work of the famous writer Carlos Monsiváis.

In 2001 he published his first novel Tengo miedo torero a difficult story of contextualized love during the attempt on the life of Augusto Pinochet (7 September 1986).

For the presentation of the book, Lemebel arrived in a red dress with a feathered headdress, at a ceremony with many people that was public including politicians, filmmakers, journalists and a few writers.

On September 4, 2013, Lemebel was awarded the "Premio José Donoso," which he dedicated to his mother, the deceased Gladys Marín, and his readers belonging to the working class.

At the end of the same month they published Arder, a book that is compiled of images of the homonymous exposure and that extensively gathered his audio visual work.

With a poetic prose that is at the same time self-deprecating, consequential, refers to an "other", irreverent, over elaborate and corny, he mixes reality with fiction, which he uses to denounce the "silicone" parts of his works.

Mexican writer Carlos Monsiváis associates his aesthetic criticisms with those of Néstor Perlongher, Joaquín Hurtado and to a lesser extent with Reinaldo Arenas, Severo Sarduy and Manuel Puig; with the first three, for their "vindicating anger", with Sarduy for his "radical experimentation" and with Puig for his "witty incorporation and victory of proscribed sensitivity."

In his related Chronicles about AIDS, he employs a modernist and postmodernist view that is similar to Julián del Casal, Amado Nervo and Enrique Gómez Carrillo.

His extensive efforts in breaking the norm through his unique self-expression in his written works and activism have left a lasting impact on society and are part of his legacy.