The LGBT movement and the gender and sexual diversity education policies: losses, gains and challenges

Abstract

This article explores the relation between the State and social movements in the production of public education policies focused on gender and sexual diversity. This reflection takes as its main sources two recent investigations dedicated to understanding the introduction of gender and sexual diversity into public education policies in Brazil during the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva government: one livre-docência thesis (VIANNA, 2011) and another work that investigated how the curriculum policies were understood, appropriated and implemented by public school teachers in the state of São Paulo (VIANNA, 2012). The purpose of this article is to look at the production of these policies from the viewpoint of the tensions present in the dialogue between the Lula government and the social demands made by the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) movement to reduce inequality and to construct social rights. By discussing gains, losses and future challenges, the text highlights the contradictions found in the processes of interlocution between the government and the LGBT movement. When the government introduces gender and sexual diversity demands in education, it seems to be willing to give value to the theme without considering the power relations that determine the traditional parameters supporting gender relations and teaching identities in daily school life.