On a very sunny and hot day in Rio de Janeiro’s summer, a group of friends decided to celebrate their day in a very common and natural way for temperatures above 30º Celsius (ºC): going to the beach. But for this group, the commonplace act of going to the beach for most people is a political act. They are activists, transsexual and transvestite men and women.
The coordinator of the Marcha Trans e Travesti in Rio de Janeiro, Gab Van, points out that the act Ocupa Leme, a beach in the south of the city, was designed to expose bodies considered “out of standard”, in celebration of Trans Visibility Day, which is celebrated on January 29th.
“Today, occupying this space, occupying Leme, for us is an act of militancy. Because many people never came after their transition [de gênero]. They did not return to the beaches. So, coming back with another perspective, with another look, with another presence, and feeling welcomed and belonging to that place, brings not only a quality of life, beyond the feeling of belonging. The feeling of existing. I can exist everywhere,” said Gab.
Going to the beach for transgender people and transvestites can pose danger and aggression – Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil
Active in the NGO Capacitrans, Ágata Tariga, said that Trans Visibility Day goes back to 2004, when the Transvestite and Respect campaign was launched in Brasilia. For her, going to the beach on a daily basis can represent danger and aggression.
“We are not very passable bodies, we are different bodies. And because we are trans women and men, many of them have not had mastectomies, and other trans women have non-standard bodies, so we are a little apprehensive about coming to the beach, because just by coming to the beach we are looked at with different eyes, curses or sexual harassment. So if we occupy the beach, everyone together will feel more comfortable. We notice that even the looks change, because many are here. If it is only one, only one, the looks are really different”, he said.
Ágata recalls that, in recent decades, some rights have been achieved by the trans population, such as taking hormone therapy through the SUS, the social name on documents and the right to rectify the name and gender on the birth certificate.
trans bench
The elected state deputy Dani Balbi celebrated the election of a trans – Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil
Elected state deputy Dani Balbi celebrates this historic January 29, on the eve of the inauguration of the first trans bench in the Federal Chamber. The parliamentarians elected in October will be sworn in on Wednesday (1st).
“We have Duda Salabert, Érica Hilton, occupying that space with all the political quality, with all the history and density. To say that trans women, transvestites, LGBTQIA+ people need to be there to talk about themselves, but also to talk about urgent issues that intersect the existence of transsexuals and transvestites. And here in the state of Rio de Janeiro, I, in other places, in Natal, my partner Linda Brasil. So there are many experiences, it is a timid advance and we hope that more and more people will continue to advance”, said the elected state deputy.
According to Dani Balbi, it is estimated that in Rio de Janeiro around 15,000 people declare themselves transsexuals. These people have specific demands to be met by public policies.
“We hope to do a qualitatively dense mapping, not just quantitatively, so that from there we can guide public policies. They are fundamental, especially those that guarantee access to formal education, because most transsexual and transvestite people end up dropping out of school. And also public health. Because the health of transsexuals and transvestites is peculiar, it requires some degree of peculiarity, specificity and training”.
Other events mark Trans Visibility Day in Rio de Janeiro, such as the 1st Mercado Mundo Trans entrepreneurship fair at the Museu de Arte do Rio at Praça Mauá and artistic interventions from the scene Ballroom at the Transcentralidades event, in Lapa.
