The cultural politics of transgender health: considerations from the encounter between trans activism and theatre

Abstract

In this work I analyse the formation of a cultural policy within the social mobilization around transgender health in Brazil. Through the ethnography of the preparation, performance, and reverberations of the play Histórias compartilhadas during the 11th edition of the festival For Rainbow in 2017 at the Dragão do Mar cultural center, in Fortaleza, Ceará, I try to understand how a social representation of travesti and trans people has been formed in favor of the claim of rights as a result of a performance in different expressive ways. The theatrical play and its socio-political animation were constituted as liminality rituals whose potential for articulation turned to social change. This article is part of a broader ethnographic research developed in hospital and activism scenes in Ceará between 2017 and 2019.

Keywords:
theatre; transgender health; art; culture