(Re)recognizing sexualities: adolescents, deprivation of liberty, and family

Abstract

Socioeducation is provided for in the Statute of Children and Adolescents and regulated by the National Socioeducational Assistance System in Brazil to promote, protect, and defend the human and fundamental rights of adolescents and young people responsible for criminal acts, including gender diversity and sexual orientation. In the Socioeducational Centers (CENSEs), socioeducational service units with deprivation of liberty, gender diversity and sexual orientation are erased, an erasure that attempts to nullify differences and impose homogenization. In this very nebulous place are the families of those adolescents and young people who are not welcomed in their doubts and fears, which makes them centers of exclusion. With this in mind, a focus group with four adolescents was formed to address issues related to gender diversity, sexual orientation, and family in a CENSE in Paraná, Brazil. During the development of the focus group activities, significant changes were observed in CENSE, adolescents, and families; that is, gender diversity and sexual orientation became topics in various socioeducational sectors.