O coração queer do Centro Histórico: uma cartografia da Praça Anthenor

Abstract

In recent years, the Right to Experience the City enters as a strong Human Rights agenda, in the academic context and the struggles of social movements. Arise about it the quality access to health, education, public safety, culture, transportation and leisure. However, the reality for many individuals, perceived as minorities of power, is the violation of rights and their exposure to various types of violence. Among these individuals are those who represent the LGBTQ+ community, who, in breaking with the cis heteronormative pattern of gender and sexuality, are exposed, in addition to the aggressions in general, to the restriction of their right to express themselves in the urban space. This practice ends up promoting a process of territorialization with the election of urban spaces conducive to the free exercise of their conditions of existence, among them, the practice of leisure. This research is an offshoot of an investigation about LGBTQ+ territoriality and sociability in the city of João Pessoa, Paraíba, which pointed out Praça Anthenor Navarro and Largo São Frei Pedro Gonçalves, in the Varadouro neighborhood, as an important centrality in the urban context, where these individuals felt free to exercise their gender and sexuality conditions during night leisure practice. Thus, in order to understand how social diversity feeds these dynamics, we sought to identify the physical, spatial, cultural and symbolic characteristics of the place through the construction of a sensitive urban cartography, based on the methodology of Santiago Cao (2018), using as methodological instruments the field observation and semi-structured interviews with the individuals present at the site. The results indicate that the problems of LGBTQ+ individuals permeates spatial, cultural, social and educational issues, revealing the need to think about the city considering the multiplicity of groups and human interests, where the freedom and the identity of each one must be preserved, seeking and promoting a more democratic urban development without violations of rights and with ensuring full enjoyment of the city’s structure and public spaces.