Our second student post by Ellie Friends '21!
Today was a packed day in Salvador. We headed out this morning after breakfast to the old downtown of Salvador, and had a look around a museum on Benin art and culture, before heading down the steep cobblestone streets to meet with Cristiano Santos (Cris), the vice-president of Grupo Gay de Bahia (GGB). After talking with Cris and exploring the GGB LGBT archives, we had lunch and took the metro to meet with Millena Passos, at the Secretaria de Políticas para as Mulheres da Bahia (SPM; Secretary for Women’s Policy for the State of Bahia).
What struck me from both our talk with Cris about the founding of GGB and our talk with Millena about occupying governmental space was the ways in which these activist individuals used their identities and experiences, as well as the experiences of others, as essential sources of knowledge in their fight for recognition, respect, and equity. Perhaps because of the amount of my life that I have spent learning in a classroom, I sometimes divert to academia as the place where individuals gain knowledge. I was interested by the ways that the activists we spoke with today had gained knowledge through their lives and experiences.
Posters on display at the Grupo Gay da Bahia (Ellie Friends '21)
Cris gave us an overview of GGB history and noted the way that the organization started through an anecdote that illustrates one of the ways that experience shapes activism and knowledge. The GGB was founded on February 28, 1980 and has been a leading LGBT organization in Brazil and internationally. Luiz Mott, who started the group, realized the need for a homosexual group in Bahia after being punched while visiting a famous lighthouse on the Salvador coast with his partner at the time. When he went to the police for help after the assault, he was told that he could not file the incident because he had been in the wrong, since he was displaying homosexual behavior. There was no resource for him to go to after receiving this answer, so he set to work to create one.
Today, GGB runs through the work of volunteer activists who share Mott’s belief that the space and resources that GGB offers are important to Bahia and Brazil. While Mott’s incident at the lighthouse was one of many moments of violence that homosexuals in Brazil have endured, his experience catalyzed the foundation of a group that has served as a resource for others with gay and homosexual identities. It also shaped a decision to keep an archival record of these offenses through magazines, photos, and newspaper clippings. That work continues online at https://homofobiamata.wordpress.com/.
Campaign Respeita as Mina (Respect the Girls) by SPM (Jacob Longaker)
Campaign Respeita as Minas (Respect the Girls) with the slogan Não é não, Chega de Assédio (No is no! No more harassment) (Jacob Longaker)
Millena Passos was kind enough to share with us her experiences as a black trans woman in Salvador, as well as talk about her work with Secretaria de Políticas para as Mulheres da Bahia. Both her work as an activist and her work with the governmental organization has been informed by, and conscious of, identity and experience as a source of knowledge. She left home at a young age and supported herself through prostitution. Along the way, she forged bonds with other trans and queer people of color, and within this network, she created a supportive family. These experiences have helped Millena recognize the problems that trans and black women face in Bahia today, and she has extended her activism to recognize and work with communities of Brazilians facing different sets of intersectional challenges.
The commitment of SPM and Millena to seek knowledge through varied and intersection experiences appears in two recent policy projects Chefas de Familia. Millena and her colleagues surveyed female headed single income households across Bahia (where the woman is the only income earner). As Karla Ramos, the vice-secretary told us, they worked hard to survey women in both urban and rural areas, along coastal and river areas, disabled woman, women of color, indigenous women, white women, and women who identify outside of normative gender identities.
The individuals we talked to today utilized their own identity and what they had lived through as sources of knowledge. We were lucky that they were willing to share their time and stories with us. I was amazed by their personal stories and their courage in being voices of truth and activism, and I’m excited to see what else is in store for us in Salvador da Bahia!
- Ellie Friends '21
Bates students welcomed by Millena Passos (6th from left) and Karla Ramos (4rd from left) at the Secretary for Women's Policy of the State of Bahia (Jacob Longaker)