Thirty years after the firstNational Lesbian Seminar (Senale), the movement returned to Rio de Janeiro for the 9th edition of the meeting, held from July 2nd to 5th. With the theme "Lesbians weaving stories, building futures", the seminar resumed the specific national space for lesbians 12 years after the 8th edition, held in Porto Alegre in 2014.
During this period, there have been advances in civil rights and public policies, but the fight against violence and claims for access to work, education, housing, and comprehensive health remain on the agenda.
"We still hit the same note," summarizes Drika Cordonet, a militant from theWorld Women's March,and a member of the methodology commission of this year's Senale, which brought together 200 women. "Our bodies are still invisible and marginalized in society, with all the class, territory, race, and gender performance cuts."
This Saturday (29), Brazil celebrates theNational Lesbian Visibility DayThe date was set from the first Signal, also held in Rio de Janeiro, between August 29 and September 1, 1996. Organized by the Lesbian Collective of Rio de Janeiro (Colerj) and the Center for Documentation and Information Coisa de Mulher, the event had the theme "Health, Visibility, and Organization".
August also marks another milestone for the movement.National Lesbian Pride Day on August 19refers to the 1983 mobilization at Ferro's Bar in downtown São Paulo. At the time, activists reacted to an attempt to prevent the distribution of the lesbian newsletterChanacomChanain the establishment.
A space of its own to exist
Historical reference for the lesbian and black women's movement, Rosângela Castro has been active since the 1970s. She was one of the founders of the Lesbian Collective of Rio de Janeiro (Colerj) and helped organize the first National Lesbian Seminar (Senale) in 1996.
For her, the continuation of August 29, three decades later, responds to a basic need of the movement. "The importance of these dates is to prevent the erasure of our existence."
Castro reminds that the idea of creating a specific space for lesbians gained strength after episodes of machismo and lesbophobia experienced during the conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), held in Rio in 1995.
"We realized that it was necessary to have a specific lesbian space to discuss lesbian issues," she states.
Journalist and activist Camila Marins highlights the leadership of black women in this construction, especially Neusa das Dores and Elizabeth Calvet, who coordinated the first meeting.
"Lesbian visibility is black," she notes, praising Neusa's activism, who also built her trajectory in the black movement, in the organization of black women, and in the struggle for racial policies.
Without the internet and with few resources, the organizers mobilized participants of the first seminar through letters, faxes, and contacts between movements. The initial expectation was to gather around 30 people. In the end, 101 signed the attendance list.
According to organizers' reports, some companions refrained from registering their names out of fear of lesbophobia.
Visibility is not just appearing
For Castro, the main legacy of these three decades has been "making lesbian life visible" and expanding the discussion on specific rights, from health and education to housing and combating violence.
Camila Marins recovers a formulation by Neusa das Dores, also claimed by the movement, which states that visibility "is not just appearing." "We want lesbians in the public budget, in public policies, in the SUS, in Suas, in universities, in the labor market."
In health, one of the advances was the creation in 2011 of theNational Policy for Integral LGBT Healthwithin the Unique Health System (SUS). The norm provides, among other points, the reduction of inequalities in care, the guarantee of sexual and reproductive rights, and specific actions for the health of lesbians and bisexual women.
Drika Cordonet, however, believes that formal recognition does not always translate into everyday life. Among the current issues, she mentions lesbian access toTechnologies for assisted reproduction by the SUS (Brazilian Public Health System)"We also want to bring life into the world and have the right to have both mothers cared for by the Unified Health System," she says.
The agenda also incorporated themes such as care,Environmental RacismIn the face of the climate crisis, this year's Signal debate focused on the impacts of extreme events on peripheral and traditional communities, and the need to include lesbians in protection and assistance policies.
"We also put our bodies into public policies, crisis climate assistance, and protection from environmental tragedies," Cordonet explains.
The need for independent organization does not eliminate the competition for space within allied movements. Cordonet states that lesbian-specific agendas still need to be claimed within feminism.
"We still have to fight and advocate for our agendas to be included in the texts, proposals, and debates," she says. She believes it is essential to ensure that lesbian leaders also participate in shaping the political agendas of these movements.
Confronting lesbian homicide and intergenerational meeting
The fight against lesbianophobia and lesbian homicide remains a priority. This year's mobilizations have one reference:Luana Barbosa dos Reisa black, lesbian, peripheral, and mother woman who died at 34 years old in April 2016, after being beaten during a police stop in Ribeirão Preto, SP.
The ten years since her death were the theme of the 24th Walk of Lesbian and Bisexual Women of São Paulo, held in June, and also crossed discussions at Senale.
For Cordonet, remembering Luana also shifts the claim beyond the right to survive violence. "Luana didn't have the right to age with dignity."
The 30-year edition also brought together different generations of the movement. At the opening, 31 women who participated in the construction of the previous Signals were honored, while approximately 30 young people were recognized for continuing the organization.
"It's not a passing of the torch," Cordonet states. In her view, new generations build the movement alongside those who participated in previous struggles, accumulating their experiences. The idea is in the choice of the term "futurities," in the plural. According to the activist, the proposal is not to treat the future as something distant, but as something that begins with the actions taken by the participants back to their territories.
For Rosângela Castro, the very 29th of August remains necessary "so that there is no erasure of our existence."
Drika Cordonet connects this idea to another August landmark, pride. "It's the pride of being who we are and the visibility of us being where we want to be," she sums up.