presentation about educational policy and the fight against homophobia in Brazil.

1. Educational Policy and the Fight Against Homophobia in Brazil Felipe Bruno Martins Fernandes CUNY | Graduate Center | CLAGS | February 4th All sections to appear here

2. EducationalPolicyandthe fightAgainstHomophobia in Brazil pptPlex Section Divider The slides after this divider will be grouped into a section and given the label you type above. Feel free to move this slide to any position in the deck.

3. Educational Policy and the Fight against Homophobia in Brazil Felipe Bruno Martins Fernandes PhD Candidate, Interdisciplinary Program in Gender Studies (Faculty of Human Sciences) Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Brazil). CAPES/PDEE Scholarship CLAGS SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE (2009-2010)

4. Summary Introduction The creation of the agenda to fight homophobia at the Education Ministry The role of Secad’s officials, legitimating personnel, and partners Actions/strategies to fight homophobia in the Education Ministry The different moments of the policy Homophobia Diversity NGOs  Universities Conclusion References

5. Introduction

6. The creation of the agenda to fight homophobia at the Education Ministry pptPlex Section Divider The slides after this divider will be grouped into a section and given the label you type above. Feel free to move this slide to any position in the deck.

7. The creation of the agenda to fight homophobia at the Education Ministry Launching of a federal program called “Brazil Without Homophobia” The publication of a UNESCO report entitled “Youth and Sexualities” The creation of the “Secretariat for Continuous Education, Literacy, and Diversity” in the Education Ministry

8. Brazil Without Homophobia The Right to Education: Promoting Values of Respect for Peace and Non- Discrimination on the grounds of Sexual Orientation To encourage and provide support for initial and ongoing training courses for teachers in the field of sexuality; To assemble multidisciplinary teams for assessing didactic bibliographical material, in order to eliminate discriminatory aspects, with the overall purpose of suppressing homophobia; To encourage the production of educational material (films, videos and publications) about sexual orientation and the need to overcome homophobia; The support and encourage the production and dissemination of specific materials for teacher training; To give ample publicity to scientific information about human sexuality; To encourage research and dissemination of knowledge that can contribute to combating violence and discrimination against GLTB; To set up the Subcommittee on Education in Human Rights within the Education Ministry with the participation of the homosexual movement, ensuring that it is in a position to track and evaluate the guidelines suggested.

9. Youth and Sexualities 16,6% Castro; Abramovay; Silva, 2004 Of students think homosexuality is a disease 48% Of parents would not like their sons to have a homosexual colleague. 6% Of teachers would not like to have a homosexual student

10. Secretariat for Continuous Education, Literacy, and DiversitySECAD FernandaBenevutti – National LGBT Association | President LuísInácio “Lula da Silva | First Lady “Dona Mariza”

11. What kind of policies have been implemented? pptPlex Section Divider The slides after this divider will be grouped into a section and given the label you type above. Feel free to move this slide to any position in the deck.

12. What kind of policies have been implemented? Teacher training The organization of Seminars and Events The creation of Contests and Awards The publication of didactic material (teaching resources)

13. Next Friday, the 7th,, is the deadline for applications for the course “Educating for Diversity”, which deals with the areas of the Secretariat for Continuous Education, Literacy, and Diversity. […] The goal is to teach a thousand students in areas such as youth and adult education, indigenous education, the environment, rural education, ethnic and racial diversity, gender orientations [sic] and the question of sexuality. […] [The course] will be monitored by six area coordinators of 50 facilitators, who will be present at the physical attendance meetings. Each facilitator will accompany 20 students. The course will last 240 hours over three months… ‘The course will be assessed internally by SECAD, and externally by professors at the University of Brasília” [citing a SECAD official]. […] ‘The student [i.e. the teachers taking the course] is evaluated from the beginning until the end [of the course].

14. Unfortunately the area of Education in our country turned differences and inequalities into false and perverse synonym. Differences were translated as inequalities, and, because of that, the country, the society and schools were made intolerant. If we want to break with this intolerance, it is vital for us to end this synonym; and to understand that difference is not inequality. And in order to end the inequalities in this country we have to valorize difference. And valorizing differences means making the question of diversities (ethno-racial, cultural, environmental, regional and specifically of gender and sexual orientation) central to Education.

15. The second edition of the Gender Equality Award shows that the inequalities between men and women are also a concern for our youth. […] In the presentation of Awards, the high point was those given to texts developed by primary and secondary students to offer solutions to everyday conflicts, such as sexual prejudice and prostitution […] ‘Through the competition I was able to speak to many people, generating reflections on the issue. When you start thinking that something is wrong, you try to find ways to change what is happening’ [primary student who received an award].

16. The Almanac represents [a] collective search in two directions: peace in diversity and diversity in peace. […] To guarantee a change in the education system, we have to guarantee equality on the basis of diversity. Democratizing education is synonymous with quality and equality.

17. Actors and tensions pptPlex Section Divider The slides after this divider will be grouped into a section and given the label you type above. Feel free to move this slide to any position in the deck.

18. Actors and tensions Officials working at SECAD “Experts” Universities; NGOs Actors who play a role legitimizing the policies to fight homophobia Celebrities Top government officials Etcetera

19. I accompanied three rounds of projects of Brazil without Homophobia in the area of continuing education for school teachers in Porto Alegre. The courses were offered by an NGO for Free Sexual Orientation in our state. […]. As I saw it, the teachers who took the course were already linked to social movements or unions. Those courses, in other words, were preaching to the converted.

20. About the content of the courses. “The topics and modules also were reviewed and edited by CLAM”. “The content was re-worked by new specialists, very nice and highly recommended people that worked in editing the content. A process like this should be open to criticism, should not become something crystallized”. [The scholar] then talked about the editing that was done to the content. “The basic perspective of the course is centered on human rights and the Social Sciences. And each time we affirmed this we did it fully aware of what we were doing. We did that basically to confront a biological perspective, which is also organicist and physicalist. “Authors too centered on the content, specialists, worked in a first manuscript of the book. The aim was to privilege important concepts like gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity. Also, to address historic transformations like the women’s revolution. Also a particular paradigm: Which social reality are we dealing with? We also included the importance of social movements. If not for social movements, we would not be here today. Lastly, we included the need to get closer to the reality in schools”.

21. “We amended some basic principles, that we spoke about [to the student-teachers] in our present meetings. 1- the gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnic differences must be respected, valorized, and cannot be used as the basis for exclusion and discrimination; 2- to maintain a non essentialist perspective, to develop a critical posture to naturalization or biologization sexual differences; 3- there is a process of inferiorization of woman and the feminine and this reflects on homosexuals; 4- to stress that sexism and homophobia are raise as interconnected; 5- There is a connection between racist discourses and sexist and homophobic discourses; 6- the debate is open and evolve delicate moral questions. The course is not intended to advertize truths, but to provide the comprehension of ethical implications and, from that, to build one’ own opinion”.

22. Conclusion pptPlex Section Divider The slides after this divider will be grouped into a section and given the label you type above. Feel free to move this slide to any position in the deck.

23. Conclusion

24. References pptPlex Section Divider The slides after this divider will be grouped into a section and given the label you type above. Feel free to move this slide to any position in the deck.

25. References Dehesa, Rafael de la. "Global Communities and Hybrid Cultures: Early Gay and Lesbian Electoral Activism in Brazil and Mexico." Latin American Research ReviewFeb 42.1 (2007). Fernandes, Felipe B. M., Miriam P. Grossi, and Joana M. Pedro. Homofobia como uma categoria teórica no Brasil (2008): notas preliminares sobre a produção de trabalhos de conclusão de curso, dissertações e teses a partir de pesquisa na plataforma lattes. Proc. ofSeminário Corpo, Gênero e Sexualidade, FURG/RS, Rio Grande. Vol. 1. Rio Grande: UFRGS/FURG/UFSM, 2009. 1-10. Mott, Luiz. Assassinatos de Homossexuais do Brasil– 2004. Rep. Salvador: Grupo Gay da Bahia - GGB, 2004. DIREITOS HUMANOS - PARA TODOS E TODAS! Web. 11 Jan. 2010. <http://www.ggb.org.br/direitos.html>. Ong, Aiwa. Neoliberalism as Exception: mutations in citizenship and sovereignty. DurhamandLondon: Duke UP, 2006. Orter, Sherry. "Poder e Projetos: reflexões sobre agência." Conferências e Diálogos: Saberes e Práticas Antropológicas. Blumenau: Editora Nova Letra, 2006. 45-80.

26. Acknowledgements pptPlex Section Divider The slides after this divider will be grouped into a section and given the label you type above. Feel free to move this slide to any position in the deck.

27. THANK YOU!Contact:complex.lipe@gmail.com

28. Acknowledgements Supervisors: Prof. Miriam Pillar Grossi; Prof. Joana Maria Pedro; Prof. Rafael de la Dehesa Brazilian Government (PDEE/CAPES) CUNY and the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies Friends and colleagues in New York ÉvertonLuís Pereira