Marina M Segatti

In the context of the rise of neoconservatism, I investigate how queer and trans Brazilian politicians use social media to respond to processes of social and political exclusion and violence. Politics, sexuality, and race have been inextricably linked in Brazil through discourses of ‘racial democracy’ and ‘sexual paradise.’ This connection has reached new heights of visibility in the last decade through the mobilization of the threat of ‘gender ideology’ to the traditional family, popularized by an alliance between extreme right politicians and the Evangelical and Catholic churches. Discourses of family corruption and promiscuity are categories through which queer and trans people are negatively rendered. A strident right-wing movement has recently emerged in Brazil, conflating the anti-corruption rhetoric with broader moralistic claims against women and racial and sexual minorities, and embodying a backlash against previous progressive policies. The politics of gender and sexuality have been a site of polarization. Social media has become the battleground to fight over public opinion and it has had a steering role in political events since 2013. This project examines the strategies of queer and trans Brazilian politicians confronting right-wing targeting and political violence, through the everyday impact and intimate intricacies of neoconservatism in social media.