Brazilian queer and trans mobility: a postcolonial approach

Abstract

The world paradox of LGBT+ migration and refuge seeking might become a little bit trickier when we look into Brazil. This country used to be the main country of origin of queer and trans emigrants, but in the past years after some “legal apparatus” that strengthened LGBT+ rights and protection, became a country of destination of queer and trans migrants and asylum seekers (Andrade 2019; França 2017).

We could compare Brazil with other “sexual democracies” that became a haven for LGBT+ migrants in the Global South. What is remarkable in the Brazilian experience is the (neo)fascist turn in the politics in the second half of 2010’s century and how, at the same time, the country became both a receiver and a sender of LGBT+ migrants. It became receiver because of an easy process for asylum procedure at the borders and with the federal police, based on identity of gender and sexual orientation. These policies are also safeguarded by a series of LGBT+ law enforcements that the justice system has been backing up in the past years (Theodoro and Cogo 2019). As a sender, there are few data available on who is leaving, although the evidence has been very clear in the past years. Many leaving are LGBT+s scared of the fascist presidency in power between 2018-2022 or who desire to live in a place where they can be free of harassment and violence – especially trans people (Vartabedian 2018).

This paper will present the Participatory Observation done from 2020-2021 with the Coletivo Pelos Direitos do Brasil em Madrid, a grassroot organization that organizes several assemblies, events on human rights, LGBT+ rights and decolonial feminism and is connected to several networks of the diaspora in the Iberian Peninsula and Europe.