Closed for renovations at its headquarters, the Museum of Sexual Diversity is promoting today (11) a walk through the center of the city of São Paulo. The objective is to celebrate Carnival and rediscover memories, telling a little about the history of the center of the capital, a place that is very representative of the LGBTQIAP+ community. The tour left at República Metro station, where the museum’s headquarters are located. From there, the participants of the tour went on a walk through Praça da República and Largo do Arouche. “Today, Rolês Territorialidades takes place, which is an event that is part of the Memories and Territory project, within the Museum without Walls program. As the museum is closed, we have several programs that are going on. We are going to take a tour of the Republic to learn about LGBTQIAP+ history, specifically within the theme of Carnival and festivities”, said Nay Costa, educator at the museum’s education center, in an interview with Agência Brasil. “The goal is to understand how the cultural scene and especially the LGBTQIAP+ scene is developing. Understanding that, if there is an LGBTQIAP+ scene, it is because at some point this scene needed to be built, that we had to resist and build these spaces so that our bodies could enjoy these spaces with safety, leisure, dignity and respect”, he added. The walk through the center will pass through emblematic places for this community, such as the Caneca de Prata and the party Freedom. “República is one of the largest LGBTQIA+ neighborhoods in the world. He’s been resisting here since the military dictatorship,” said Val Chagas, pedagogical coordinator of the museum’s education center. “When they had these police raids, where LGBT people were arrested just for being LGBT, these bars were political places. They took these people in and hid them until the police came by and left. These places were never all about the festivities. Even in moments of festivity and celebration, they always had a political background”. Museum The walk also marks two moments of difficulty for the museum. The first of these is the renovation of the space, which will be expanded. “The museum occupied a space of approximately 100 square meters. It was a very small space to tell our story and present the artists that make up the acronym. The museum will undergo this renovation and will be expanded to about five times the size it is today. This will make it possible for him to have a long-term exhibition and better constitute his collection”, said Val Chagas. The forecast is that the museum can be reopened to the public at the end of the first half of this year. The other moment is the struggle for resistance. In April of last year, the museum had to be closed by court decision after a state deputy questioned the contract worth around R$ 30 million signed between the government of the state of São Paulo and the Odeon Institute, responsible for managing the space. The museum was closed for four months. At the time, deputy Gil Diniz even celebrated the closure of the museum on his social network. “There will be no ‘Drag’ exhibition at the LGBT Museum thanks to this deputy Gil Diniz, who insists on inspecting the governor and his secretaries!”, he wrote, who identifies himself as a Bolsonarist on Twitter. “Last year, we were victims of an LGBTphobia lawsuit. It was persecution, on the part of a deputy. He didn’t agree that the museum needed to be expanded and looked for reasons for us to close. He unfairly accused the social organization of not having the competence to manage the apparatus. This went to court and we were able to prove that the accusations made no sense, that they were unfounded and were nothing more than a persecution of the guidelines that the museum deals with. It was a sad moment and we had to resist once again”, said Val Chagas. The Museum of Sexual Diversity is the first museum in Latin America to address sexuality and gender issues. “Society still has many taboos regarding this agenda. And the museum, as this place of education and research, needs to be open and functioning so that people can break these taboos and prejudices in relation to the diversity of existences and identities”, said Val. Carnival Block In addition to the walk through the center, the Museum of Sexual Diversity also promotes today a carnival block, called Ser que É, with departure scheduled at 13:00 at Rua Augusta, 1.300. “The block has been taking place here at the museum for several years and has been growing more and more”, said Val Chagas. This is one of the 181 blocks that should parade in São Paulo between today and tomorrow, during the pre-Carnival period. The expectation of the São Paulo City Hall is that the street Carnival, between pre and post Carnival, will attract 15 million revelers this year in São Paulo.
Agência Brasil
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