Sexual, gender and education minorities: LGBTI demands and struggles in the Brazilian context

Abstract

Education is a right of all and a duty of school, family and society, however it is not always democratic when it comes to sexual and gender minorities. In Brazil, the violence and stigmatization of LGBTI students cause low schooling and many other social developments. Thinking about it, the LGBTI population has sought to guarantee the right of access and permanence in educational institutions through political and social movement. Thus, this work aims to clarify how the actions of the LGBTI movement has been contributing historically to the transformations in education. We consider that changes in Education happen, among others, through the influence of these subjects, and by those who understand the importance of respect for diversity in School, which shows itself as a hostile space marked, sometimes, by cis-heteronormativity. Through the concept of active minorities, we seek to understand how LGBTI individuals oppose the social rules and norms imposed by the majority and influence social transformations. We understand that the reproduction of rules and patterns of behavior in the educational environment tends to an anti-democratic logic, in which the students are not fully respected when they present identities and sexualities considered dissident.