Photo/Reproduction: @adachocariri
August 3 took on new meaning for organized LGBTQIA+ movements in the city of Crato, in Ceará’s Cariri. In September of last year, the municipality, located 542 km from Fortaleza, enacted law 3840/2021, establishing a date for the Municipal LGBTQIA+ Pride Day.
The initiative is part of the struggle to guarantee rights and fight prejudice and discrimination against the city’s LGBTQIA+ communities. August 3 was chosen in reference to law 17,599, which recognizes the Association for Defense, Support and Citizenship of Homosexuals in Crato and the Cariri Region – ADACHO CARIRI for Public Utility services in Ceará. They were the first organization in the state to receive the honor.
“We see it as an acknowledgment of our struggle, which has not started today and will not stop now. Of course, we conquered many rights to help construct a more humanized and conscious society. But this is just the beginning”, says André Lacerda, president and founder of ADACHO.
Their work in advocacy and institutional strengthening had resources granted by Brazil Human Rights Fund in the general call for proposals 2021- Moving Forward with Rights.
“Having a project supported by Brazil Fund was extremely important for ADACHO because we were able to strengthen our LGBTQIA+ population and develop human rights education and training actions. Besides encouraging us to seek the mechanisms to assist in producing proposals for the new laws that were approved”, explains André Lacerda.
Violence against LGBTQIA+ people in Ceará
ADACHO receives recognition of Public Utility in Cariri and the region
In the state of Ceará alone, more than 20 LGBTQIA+ people were killed because of hate and prejudice last year. That is what data from the Dossier of Deaths and Violence Against LGBTI+ people in Brazil in 2021 points out. Among the victims are eleven trans women or transvestites. That’s the highest number of such murders among the monitored states.
For André Lacerda, the violence in Ceará’s countryside is even worse for different reasons. “We are already scared by the number of cases of violence against LGBTs in large cities. But, now…Imagine how difficult it is to live in a small town in the Brazilian sertão. In such a sexist place, the population has less access to information and technology and faces different social vulnerabilities. As a result, we have to fight twice as much for our survival.”
Therefore, in addition to the Municipal LGBT Pride Day, ADACHO sent another proposal to the City Council to establish November 20 as the Municipal Day of Fight against LGBTPhobia. The request was also approved.
“We chose this date because it marks the day that Edval Carvalho, a local hairdresser, was murdered in an act of hate that had a big repercussion in Crato. Unfortunately, this is just one of the cases. Our rights are violated everywhere in Brazil. But here, we feel the absence of a closer and more attentive look at our reality daily. Because of that, we are working to implement policies to reduce the rates of crime and violence against the LGBT population”, completes the activist.
ADACHO: 18 years for LGBTQIA+ diversity
The Association for Defense, Support, and Citizenship of Homosexuals in Crato and the Cariri Region – ADACHO CARIRI is an organization that has been working for 18 years to guide and to fight for the fundamental rights of the LGBTQIA+ population, guaranteeing access to health, education, citizenship, and culture.
“We believe that only through the strengthening of the LGBTQIA+ population the rates of violence, discrimination, and deaths that affect the region of Crato and Cariri can change. So, our goal is to strengthen the LGBT population in the principles of friendship, union, respect, inclusion, and human solidarity”, emphasizes André.
ADACHO is the second oldest LGBT organization in Ceará and the first to have Public Utility recognized by the Legislative Assembly. “The organization’s programs and initiatives, over the years, can be considered as ‘kick-starts’ for the beginning of the conversation and the guaranteeing of the rights of the LGBTQIA+ population, still in need of a more careful look at their agendas,” concludes the article. activist André Lacerda.
More than 12 thousand people participate in LGBTQIA+ Diversity Week actions in Crato.
Moving Forward with Rights.
The 14th general call for proposals of the Brazil Fund is part of a more comprehensive line of the foundation’s support, which encompasses various causes and strategies to face institutional violence and different forms of discrimination.
The call 2021-Moving Forward with Rights granted 20 organizations with an amount of up to R$ 40,000.00 for initiatives in defense of women’s rights; fighting racism; rights of indigenous peoples; of quilombola and traditional populations; fair and sustainable cities; free sexual orientation and gender identity; land and territory; and guaranteeing of rights.
