An ANTi-history about the process of the first sex reassignment surgery in Brazil: actors and their socio-political relations in the civil-military dictatorship

Abstract

This article uses the ANTi-History epistemo-methodological framework (Durepos, 2009; Durepos & Mills, 2012; Quelha-de-Sá & Costa, 2018a) to (re)assemble the network of actors involved in carrying out the first surgery of sexual reassignment in Brazil during the civil-military dictatorship (1964-1985). In this period there were serious violations of human rights including persecution of LGBTQ + people, considered threats to national security, family and morals. Approximately three decades after the end of this period, a National Truth Commission was established, whose reports were instrumental in revealing the crimes and abuses committed. However, many of the aggressions against LGBTQ + remained murky, an example being the case of surgery that goes from a public health issue to a public justice issue. In this research we follow traces left by a network of actors associated with different institutions of public administration and who deal, at the time, with the same phenomenon in different ways. Thus, this work contributes to historical studies in Administration, revealing the turning points that define aspects inherent to a network of actors in the past and identifying some aspects that are still reflected in the present moment of institutions belonging to Public Administration.