Abstract

This thesis has been produced for my Master's degree in Environmental Education for the Research Group, Education and the Training of Educators, and had as its objective to narrate the production of homosexual activists' identities. The thesis analyzed narratives of homosexual activists who belonged to the group CELLOS/MG, located in Belo Horizonte. The narratives were produced with the Narrative Investigation methodology. Connections were established with Cultural Studies, especially the post-structuralists, using authors such as Hall, Louro, Silva, Veiga-Neto among others, and contributions of Michel Foucault. Environmental Education is understood as an area of knowledge that has no scientific "mooring cables" of epistemological production inside science, and it is interpreted as a way of giving voice, respectfully and tolerantly, to differences through broadening dialogue to make it more inclusive. This research project relied on authors who theorize about the homosexual movement, such as Facchini, Green, Fry, MacRae, Câmara, among others. It is through the narration of stories within the homosexual movement that activists constitute themselves through multiple discourses. Appropriating information imported from such countries as the United States, and during a dictatorship in Brazil, the 1970s saw the birth of the first actions of a homosexual movement in Brazil. The group CELLOS/MG became an idea  in 2001, when a group of students, members and supporters of other dissident organizations, decided to create a group. Four people collaborated with this research project. Rick is 31 years old, white, hemophilic and poor. He joined the homosexual movement through the invitation of a a friend. Lucas is 31 years old, medium brown-skinned, and of Indian descent. He did not start his political work in the homosexual movement, but rather in the Catholic Church and as a supporter of the Workers Party (Partido do Trababladores-PT). Vicente is a 43 year old middle-class, white man, who joined the homosexual movement when he moved from Rio de Janeiro to Belo Horizonte, at age 38. Edivan is a 27 year old black man. He joined the movement in Curitiba through the group Dignidade, participated with the group GHAP in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, and then joined CELLOS/MG as the third group he has worked with. When analyzing their narratives the notion of "perceiving oneself as homosexual" emerged in their discourses as the first "trait" of these subjects. The discourse that leads one to "to perceive of oneself as homosexual" is connected, many times, to biological traits. The infantile tricks mentioned by the collaborators can be understood as social practices that constitute sexualized bodies, since three activists referred to them. In our "singularly confessing" society, the importance of the public revelation of a homosexual identity plays an important role in constituting an activist. This "coming out" can be understood as a strategy of groups to achieve the goal of "obtaining their rights". Their words make us understand that "coming out" constitutes a determining attribute for homosexual activists. The homosexual "cause" is characteristic trait of their identity. The discrimination that they have all suffered is also a common trait. As far as CELLOS/MG is concerned, their narratives make us understand that the group worries about the constitution of its activists, referring to this process as "education" [training]. All activists stated that this education [training] took place within the group. Thus, I could work with aspects that indicate how identity and difference are produced within the homosexual movement.

Key-Words : environmental education, (social) activism, homosexualities, identities, the formation of subjectivity.