Education, homophobia and barbarity
Nuances: Estudos sobre Educação, Presidente Prudente, v. 34, n. 00, e023020, 2023. e-ISSN: 2236-0441
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32930/nuances.v34i00.10241 8
semantic fields. "The use of a term, such as 'hurt,' suggests that language can have effects similar
to physical pain or injury" (BUTLER, 2021, p. 16, our translation).
Formulations like these indicate that linguistic injury operates similarly to physical
injury. The idea that speech hurts reveals an intrinsic relationship between body and speech, as
well as, consequently, between speech and its effects. Teixeira Filho (2013), also attentive to
hate speech, explains that condemnations of homoerotic practices trace back to the Middle
Ages. In that context, the word "homosexuality" did not yet exist, and instead, the term
"sodomy" was used.
The prohibition of sodomy was based on Hebrew codes that sought "to separate the pure
from the impure, order from disorder, both among people and among animals and their relations
with each other" (TEIXEIRA FILHO, 2013, p. 123, our translation). In this line, Jews had clear
restrictions and severe punishments directed at sexual practices that were not procreative. Thus,
concerning homoerotic relationships, the problem they detected resided in ejaculation, that is,
in the fact that "semen would be wasted" (TEIXEIRA FILHO, 2013, p. 123, our translation).
Consequently, both masturbation and anal sex became condemned practices, criminalized, and
conceived as sins against human nature and against God's will regarding the possibility of
procreation. Rejecting same-sex relationships through words, verbal signs, and lexical selection
that leads to pain became a constant practice and, as evidenced by the documentary's accounts,
is still prevalent in contemporary times.
Luan Oliveira (15 years old), who is part of the group of teenagers interviewed in the
documentary, makes a particularly peculiar statement: "LGBTQIAPN+ people can't just go to
any school like other people can do. And just worry about studying. They also need to worry
about the place. Whether they will be accepted for who they are. And a place where they will
feel safe." Through the transcribed discourse above, one can observe the interviewee's fear of
violence against the LGBTQIAPN+ community. Violence, moreover, intensified in the school
environment. Revealing oneself as gay, lesbian, or transgender can, in this sense, entail harmful
consequences, leading many individuals to hide, adopting a game of masks with the goal of
ensuring their survival. In harmony with this argument, Castañeda (2007) points out that
homosexuals do not always reveal themselves as homosexual. The heterosexual, however, does.
Heterosexual men and women, in their family, social, and professional relationships,
present a fairly predictable scenario: biological sex, sexual orientation, and social roles tend to
converge and form a stable identity. "In contrast, homosexual individuals do not move through
the world with a constant identity. Their attitudes, gestures, and ways of relating to others