Home Institution
Pomona College
Publication Date
Spring 2007
Abstract
Gay men across the world suffer through a reality of discrimination, violence, and hate. Academic literature supports this to be the case in Brazil, considered among many to be the world champion in the number of gay, lesbian and transsexual murders each year. Looking at the specific community of Salvador, Bahia, I have found this same homosexual reality to be the case. Though not experienced as directly as in other locations throughout Brazil, due in large part to the cities vast population and political activism, the effects of homophobia and prejudice are clearly demonstrated in this community.
My goal in this project was to see how the homosexual reality written about in books, a reality encumbered by the effects of institutional and societal discrimination, violence, hate, and preconception affected the likes of Gay men living in the city of Salvador. In working with the Grupo Gay Da Bahia, and in conducting interviews with community leader and young men affiliated with the group, I have gained a better understanding of how the academic outlining of the homosexual experience in Brazil relates to a Brazilian community in practice.
I have found that the effects of homophobia, discrimination, violence, and hate in Brail have definitely impacted the individuals with whom I have come in contact with, as well as the Salvador community at large. A part of the global struggle for human rights and respect, the gay men that I have come across in the research process of my ISP, I a have also found that the experience depicted in scholarly literature is, albeit at a snail’s pace, becoming a thing of the past. Above all, hope exists in this community, a hope that will one day eventually bring the emancipation of the gay community throughout the world.
Disciplines
Gender and Sexuality | Inequality and Stratification | Politics and Social Change
Recommended Citation
Gonzalez, Silvano, "Living in the Margins: The Male Homosexual Experience in Salvador" (2007). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 242.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/242
Included in
Gender and Sexuality Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons
Program Name
Brazil: Culture, Development, and Social Justice