Social occupational therapy and dissenting genders and sexualities: experiences from extension projects

Abstract

This study addresses the experience report of the ResisTO university extension project in partnership with a municipal public policy in a state capital in northeastern Brazil aimed at the gender and sexuality dissenting population. The report is organized into three parts: in the first part, the extension project is presented and contextualized; the second part discusses social occupational therapy, its history, and the approach to debates on gender and sexualities; the third part presents the trajectory of the actions developed and the partnerships carried out over the six years of the project’s existence, listing and reflecting on the main challenges and the potential of the work developed. The project has been dedicated to actions and reflections that are based on the analysis of social markers of difference—especially, genders and sexualities—and intersectionality. It is also anchored in the theoretical-methodological framework of social occupational therapy and public policies aimed at the LGBTQIAP+ population. Over six years of project execution, through different actions, it was possible to promote access to democratic knowledge questioning the essentialization of differences and inequalities, seek ways of living together based on respect and solidarity, produce strategies that respond to the individual and collective needs of subjects, aiming to build and expand social rights and producing reflections and democratic actions.

Keywords:  Occupational Therapy; Gender Studies; Gender-Inclusive Policies; Sexuality