O banheiro público como dispositivo de gênero

Abstract

From the debate in the UNIFESP Center of Multiprofessional Assistance to Trans People about a possible change in the university's bathrooms, in order to make them more inclusive to trans people, and other LGBTI + subjects, this article explores historical, theoretical and conceptual sources to analyze how the public bathroom has turned into a device of genre. We start with an ethnography of the dialogical construction of the integral health service among professionals, activists and users to discuss how access and circulation in the public toilet indicates the degree of social openness to visibility and contact with differences. We show how the creation of the service, where the debate was inserted, is part of a broader movement of inclusion of the differences in Brazilian universities that has generated reactions among morally conservative and politically authoritarian social segments.

Keywords: Bathroom; gender; health, trans people; LGBTI population