Under the impact of visibility: youth, (homo)sexuality and social change

Abstract

This research project is related to the socio-anthropological studies on gender and sexuality in the urban context and aims to contribute to the understanding of changes in social conventions about gender and sexuality in contemporary Brazil focusing on changes in conceptions of homosexuality in this country. So I chose adolescents as a strategic group for the analysis of the effects of some changes that have become more significant from the 1990s in major cities in Brazil: 1) the increasing visibility of homosexuality in the public sphere; 2) the proposition of government policies for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, travesties and transsexuals; 3) the creation and expansion of a market for this population; 4) the expansion of spaces of sociability in squares, parks, nightclubs, bars and also on the internet. The methodology requires a qualitative research with ethnographic approach, where I propose to do fieldwork from two spaces of sociability of young people with homosexual or bisexual practices in Sao Paulo - the Largo do Arouche square and the Augusta street. With this study I seek to understand how new generations of young people are experiencing the increasing visibility of homosexuality in the public sphere, the expansion of places for sociability in different areas in the city and a growing demand for recognition and civil rights.