Strategies and challenges in meeting the demands of the LGBT+ population in Brazil over the past few decades

Abstract

This article aims to discuss, through a literature review, strategies and challenges for meeting the demands of the LGBT+ population in Brazil over the past few decades. This topic is highly relevant in the Brazilian political landscape due to the achievements of LGBT+ rights in the country, particularly in the first decade of the 21st century, but also due to the strengthening of conservative offensives against those rights, which have been constructing de-democratic practices. We conducted a literature review in the Periodicals Portal of the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes) between April 21 and May 31, 2023. We selected 25 articles and, through a comprehensive reading of them, organized the literature review around two subthemes: a) strategies for meeting LGBT+ demands; b) challenges for meeting LGBT+ demands and for building political struggle. The strategies identified in the literature were: the relationship between the LGBT+ movement and the State; the inclusion of LGBT+ issues in political parties; the organization of LGBT+ Pride Parades; the creation of support spaces; the use of social media; and the questioning of essentialist discourses on gender and sexuality through individual and student collective actions. Regarding the challenges for meeting demands and building political struggle, we observed: the opposition of conservative sectors to LGBT+ demands; violence against LGBT+ activists; and tensions in the articulation between different LGBT+ identities. We believe that the debate constructed in this text contributes to the field of LGBT+ studies in Brazil insofar as: a) it presents discussions that have been built in the literature on strategies and challenges for meeting LGBT+ demands and, thus, on possibilities and challenges for expanding democracy; b) it proposes relevant themes to be further explored in future research in this field of knowledge.