LÉSBICAS PROFESSORAS NO ÂMBITO DAS RELAÇÕES DE GÊNERO E O ENFRENTAMENTO À LESBOFOBIA

Abstract

The lesbian teachers' narratives about their experiences and possible ways of coping with lesbophobia are the subject of this study. The aim is to analyze ways of coping with lesbophobia, within the scope of gender relations, in public schools in the Pindaré Valley Region in the state of Maranhão. The specific objectives include: recognizing socio-historical aspects of affective-sexual relations between women and lesbianism, based on historiography and social movements; identifying legal guidelines used as instruments to confront lesbophobia and their implementation in education; and analyzing the narratives of the collaborators, highlighting their understandings of gender relations and sexuality, as well as the alternatives used by public schools in the Pindaré Valley Region to confront lesbophobia. We sought to contextualize this moment with the boldness of a lesbian, who does not dissociate her sexual orientation from teaching practices, as well as the understanding of the aspects related to the issue in the life stories of 10 collaborators, all of whom are lesbians and teachers at public schools in the Pindaré Valley Region. We found that most of them understand that addressing gender and sexuality issues in continuing education can be alternatives for addressing diversity in the school environment, despite emphasizing their absence. Some of them have not experienced situations of lesbophobia at school, although they are sometimes subjected to the false impression that everything is fine given their invisibility and the absence of such issues in the debate in schools; there are no effective actions to protect the right to life of lesbians, combined with the lack of confrontation of lesbophobia, transforming the school into a space of exclusion and hostility. It is considered that there is a long way to go to effectively promote the rights of lesbians, and the fight against sexism and lesbophobia, among other forms of exclusion, stands out in guaranteeing fundamental rights for a life with dignity.