“My body, my rules”

The struggle of the LGBTQIA+ movement in pursuit of guaranteeing sexual rights based on education about human rights

Abstract

Human Rights comprise a set of basic fundamental rights aimed at protecting and ensuring the dignity of the human person, based on principles such as freedom, justice, equity and social peace. Based on this perspective, the aim of the current study is to address and reason about Sexual Rights as part of Human Rights, as well as about the struggle of the LGBTQIA+ movement to guarantee equal rights, different sexuality expressions and the (re)construction of identities. Therefore, the study was based on reflections by Furlani (2016), Valadares and Almeida (2018), Facchini (2005), Green et al (2018), among others. These reflections enabled identifying some advances and setbacks in this topic, as well as understanding the important role played by such rights in promoting respect for diversity and harmonious coexistence among individuals. The herein adopted methodological path was inspired in the reflexivity of teachers, researchers and students’ experiences (Larrosa, 2011). It is worth emphasizing that the current study is justified by the urgent need of thinking about current governmental contexts that intend to make invisible those who express gender identities and affective-sexual orientations different from the hegemonic heterosexist binary pattern. Thus, we hope that considerations in the current study can contribute to change individuals’ behavior, help them to broaden their perception about diversity and, hopefully, to engage in the fight against any type of violence affecting the dignity of the human person.