Diversity as a gift: LGBTQI+ Roman Catholic organizations in twenty-first-century Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims at examining the pluralization of Brazilian Catholicism with regard to the presence of sexual and gender diversity in Roman Catholic environments, in the context of the anti-gender attacks and growing use of Christian elements as political weapons in Latin American public debate since the 2010s. We set out to investigate the strategies used by Brazilian LGBTQI+ Roman Catholic groups to sustain their religious identity, beginning with a brief general comment on the ongoing Christian conversations on sexual and gender diversity, in an effort to go beyond the consolidated common sense of Christianity and sexual and gender diversity being irreconcilable. Next, we proceed to a brief overview of how Roman Catholic conversations on sexual and gender diversity have developed in Brazil in recent years. A short history of LGBTQI+ Roman Catholic communities in Brazil follows, highlighting their most relevant features. Finally, we move on to addressing such communities’ theological production. What we seek to understand is how the organization of openly LGBTQI+ Roman Catholic communities results in the emergence of new theological and ecclesial subjects.