Current Themes

Once ... Pride and Affirmations

"had been many years since he left the city where he was born and created. It was created until the time to create strength to leave. Maybe I did not even have all the preparation to live somewhere far away, but so I needed it. At that time it was not very easy to talk to anyone at any time, and neither very cheap. But he needed to know. She had just arrived, after a long and tiring trip. 'I just came for you, "she said with affection and as she asks to be glued to her chest and received in the ears and the skin he was there, that she was the same son as she said a day and she cried when she left. Even so he needed to know. He did not have the courage to speak or the first day, not the next day and yet he needed to know. They had never talked about it. In a conversation about life, at one of the moments of proximity, between one thing and another, after sleeping and waking up with doubt, he still wanted to know and asked, 'Mother, what happened that I and my brothers walk away? Is it because I am who I am? ' Finally he managed. She did not need much to know what he was talking about. They say that mother always knows, but son is not so smart. "Once your father asked them if they knew you live with a man. Do you know what they said? That you have the right to live and whoever you want. They are very proud of you. ' He felt what she wanted to have felt when she met. What was seemingly simple made him feel glued to her chest and he was sure he was still the son that one day he cried and smiled when he left. "

It is much easier to speak in pride when we are glued to the chest and with the certainty of security and affirmation. "I love you for what you are," the mother said. Speaking in pride is to build forces, acknowledgments. It is not feeling strange just because it is who is when someone passes and looks suspiciously as if something I have not been "right" there. Speaking in pride is to build competencies. In the United States and now in Portugal, in contact with inspiring people, I also have pointed the inspiration for competent practice with people. In searches, classes, meetings, congresses ... media, advertisements, policies ... Whatsapp groups ... at home, family and friends ... We need skills from all sides. Being friendly is not enough if we wish to live in a non-fascist society, making a "contact" with Foucault in your text "introduction to non-fascist life." We needed skills. It is for her, for example, that it is possible to perceive LGBTQIA + Cordial Phobia. They are lesbophobic, homophobic, bifobal, transfóbic and so on. which are apparently friendly, but exercise is not of respect or inclusion. They are people, who are based on social fantasies, in angry discourses and thus use dogmas as weapons that intensify prejudice and stigma. And still, exercise only the aggressions, easier to perceive, but also microagressons, those who appear indirectly or subliminally, in their speeches, knowledge and do.

This competence, confirmed its importance in many research in several places in the world, is the one that allows discussion on population groups with differences in their needs, propagating the decrease of stigmas and prejudices. This competence is one that reinforces the statement, which relates to the acceptance and validation of being who we are. Which facilitates communication, respect and inclusion. Which invites us to visit our own prejudices. She is in our day-to-day life, in the education of children, in our works, in our intimate relationships. For, the category "Humanity" is not given, it is conquered. And once exercised, it spreads for sure, the service, approach and peace, which results in pride and affirmations.

João Alves