“Travesti”, “transsexual woman”, “trans man” and “non binary”: Generation and class intersectionalities in the production of political identities

Abstract

This article is based on an ethnographic analysis of the construction of political identities in the movement of travestis, transsexual women and trans men, or simply trans movement, over the last decade in Brazil. My efforts go towards bringing together different ethnographic materials in order to highlight the changes in such processes, especially in relation to how class and generation social markers appear in the polarization between a gender “fixity” and “fluidity” claimed in identity conformations in the political arena. The material used in this analysis is basically composed by observations of activists meetings, interviews with leaders of the movement and observations of activism on the Internet. The starting points of the analysis are conflict situations in the social movement. In this regard, two meetings are of particular interest. The first is the XVI National Meeting of Travestis and Transsexuals (2009), when there was an intense debate to formalize a “political definition” of the categories “travesty” and “transsexual” from the social movement. The second is the First National Meeting of Trans Men (2015), when activists held a long debate on the “political identity” of the movement. In this case, the disagreement arose when a group of young people expressed that the category “trans man” did not encompass their gender experience, since they recognized themselves as “non-binary”.