Celebrating Lesbian Visibility Day, KK gave us an interview in which she comments on her career as an activist, the relationship between the ELAS Fund, an organization founded by five lesbian feminist activists, and the lesbian women's movement, as well as the current moment of rearticulation and strengthening of this movement in the country.

 

 

I discovered I was a feminist when I met a feminist teacher in Brasilia. She was a lesbian and said that being a feminist was a critical construction of oneself, a daily critical construction and deconstruction of oneself. She also said that a feminist was someone who didn't tolerate machismo, the world of men oppressing women. And then I immediately identified with this, because as a lesbian I was already spontaneously against these oppressions from men, I negotiated very little with oppressions, with machismo, with different treatment between men and women. I didn't need to justify it in my life. So it was "oh, I didn't know I was a feminist, but I've always been one". Then I also discovered that I was always involved in the women's struggle.

 

My first job in a civil society organization was in an LGBT NGO in Brasília, and I could see that the men had more space, they had a more noble role in the organization, giving interviews and so on, and the women had a more internal role, from cleaning, answering the phone, taking care of the day-to-day running of the NGO. And that was horrible, it was very bad to realize this differentiation. So we organized a lesbian nucleus within the organization through which we were able to have a specific meeting for women and also give priority to our activism as women within the organization - because even our activism was diluted in those routine activities, you know? So I also think that the first beneficiaries of my activism were myself and our colleagues within the NGO. And consequently the girls we brought together from the LBT community.

 

And that's an impressive thing: as soon as you start to realize how much you're being oppressed, discriminated against, you start to hear about other forms of discrimination that women are experiencing, and then the activism never ends, because there's always a reason to fight, to continue, to stand up against injustice. There's always a good reason to keep fighting, it's always worth keeping fighting.