Unstable Analogies: Talk by Dr. Jay Sosa via Zoom

Students, faculty and employees are invited to a talk by Jay Sosa via Zoom on Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m.: Unstable Analogies: LGBT Anti-Discrimination Law in Brazil and the (Non) Intersectionality of Human Rights.

From 2001 to 2019, Brazil's LGBT movements campaigned to enact anti-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The campaigns initiated a debate over the nature and extent of homophobia in Brazilian society, spanning transnational appeals for human rights inclusions to television melodrama.

This talk explains how Brazilians’ constant comparison of homophobia with racism challenged 20th-century discourses on national identity that had emphasized Brazil's racial harmony and sexual tolerance. But these comparisons also proved unstable analogies that cultivated different ethical questions about racial, gender and sexual justice in distinct settings. Drawing on intersectionality's intellectual roots in U.S. anti-discrimination law, the talk examines how intersectionality's critique of analogizing oppressions translates to transnational settings.

The Zoom link is here.