(Bio)public policies for people living with hiv/aids from a queer and deconstructionist perspective: challenges and inequities

Abstract

This work presents a critical review of public-governmental policies and actions regarding combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Brazil. It is mainly based on guidelines, documents, reports, and bulletins from the Ministry of Health, analyzed from a conscious and critical queer and deconstructionist perspective regarding the inclusion of historically marginalized subjects in public health policies and services in the country. It intends to discuss and relate the overlap between the biopower, the necropolitics, and the microcosm of queer theory with regards especially to dissident sexual practices. Analyzing access and equity in health and focusing on qualitative and quantitative data on health promotion and prevention activities carried out by Temporary Reception Centers (TRC)s and Health Care Networks (HCN), the basis for a brief theoretical elaboration on the themes mentioned emerges, based on discussions that permeate Foucault’s work and its influence on Queer Theory and biopolitical analyses. Individuals who are considered a key population in the basis of preventive strategies continue to be neglected by public policies or face difficulties in accessing health services. These major contradictions may be contributing to the significant increase in the number of new HIV/AIDS infections among the most susceptible and socio-economically-politically-culturally vulnerable demographic segments.