I wanted to talk about the school issue, how some [students] have changed. [...] We had more difficulty with gender diversity. Also, discuss the sexual division of labour, question it. [...] So, for us, it was very interesting to be able to debate. [...] You do not teach anyone to be; we do not think about our choices. It [sexual orientation] is something that comes from there of the mother's womb. [...] You go on talking and people say it's because you choose. We do not choose to be humiliated, to be cursed, to be stoned, to suffer violence. No one chooses. [...] We have also learned that feminism is different from machismo. But there are also those who believe that feminism is for a woman to think she is better than a man. They do not know, do not understand and still talk about it.

It's very interesting that you're debating this at school. We're getting ready for the world at school. We are very sad that we do not have it in other schools. People are so alienated there. It's very sad that you arrive at a person and she says: 'I accept, but you do not have to be doing little shows on the street'; which is walking hand in hand. A man cannot go hand in hand with another man and woman with woman. You should have equal rights, right? There is the talk of equal rights, but in practice, what do we do? It's hard for us to discuss this whole gender issue. Since the family, fortunate my family has never been like this. I lived with a person who was very close to my sister, he was homosexual.

It was interesting for me to participate in this gender debate. There were people who criticized, we went and explained. 'Wow, is that right?' 'Wow, I was so silly, so silly', people stay like that. They do not really know. Mother and father do not speak. It's sad to see that other schools, other people do not have access to it. I think the big step of the school is to value what we are having [the workshops]. And I hope it continues.

Secondary school student’s testimony.

Contestado Rural State School – Lapa – Paraná.

Seminar: November 24-26, 2016.

© Landless Voices II