TRANSEXUAL WOMAN, VIÇOSA’S CITIZEN: NOTES ON A POLITICAL CAREER IN MOTION

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore some aspects of the political career of Brenda Santunioni, a transgender woman who was elected as a city councillor in Viçosa (MG) in 2016. Through a case study, I analyze how the local and extra-local connections established throughout Brenda's political career since the 1990s have contributed to her rise as a relevant public figure in the city. I also explore her historical role in activism for sexual rights in the context of Viçosa. This research has been carried out through an ethnography in which, in addition to the intermittent fieldwork begun in 2020, three materials produced/obtained throughout the investigation are taken into account: news and articles in newspapers and magazines (especially Revista Lógica, edited by Brenda from 1996 to 2006); posts and interactions on social networks, and, finally, field diary notes based on observations, fieldwork and personal communications. The research has shown how the local and extra-local connections that permeate Brenda's trajectory link her to a broader context of the struggle for sexual rights and to a continuum made up of "activism", "academia/science" and sectors of the "state".