I was looking through a couple of the sources I miraculously found yesterday, and I was incredulous. The historians and politologists I have read so far kept saying that the queer community in Brazil was not politicised, and those that were, were unimportant or were dissmissed in another way. However, in my sources I found countless of examples of queer activist groups that were highly organised and even had international connections. Granted, many of these groups did not last very long, only a couple of years, but as one stopped its political activities, another two would appear within the same year. I was also surprised to find that these groups were not just in the three main cities: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and to a lesser extent Brasilia, they were in almost every region of Brazil.

I might be naïve to think so, but I do not understand how academics can describe the queer community in Brazil as not politicised. These sources are all digitised, they are easily searchable online, yet there are still academics that do not acknowledge that these organisations show that there was a highly politicised queer community. In my opinion, it does not matter that some of these organisations were ephemeral; the sheer number of them shows that the community, in most regions of Brazil, was very involved in politics and in fighting for their rights.

No doubt, I will find more academics who recognise this; it is probably due to the lack of these types of sources in government archives and not an attempt to dismiss the movement. This was a frustrating yet very gratifying experience. I have found evidence to support a big portion of my project, and it is so satisfying when you can prove tenured professors wrong.