Lusophone Anarchism and the Cultural Politics of Homosexuality (1900-1950)

Value

€7,000

Partners and collaborators

University of Lisbon

Description

This Gulbenkian Research Scholarship on Portuguese Culture sought to analyse the concepts and language employed by the Brazilian and Portuguese anarchist movements in the early twentieth century when considering the question of homosexuality. Through an analysis of the movements’ periodicals and by placing such discourse in the political, social and scientific context of the time, the research project provided a detailed analysis of the interconnections between libertarian or anarchist ideology, anticlericalism and understandings of same-sex desire. Attitudes to homosexuality were largely negative in these movements and was often associated with pederasty and abuse by Catholic Church figures. Before the creation of widespread identities based on gay and lesbian desire, these movements viewed homosexuality as somehow immoral and contrary to the values of the organised labour movement and anarchism more generally. Despite this, they argued that homosexuality should not be punished and, in this way, distanced themselves from punitive legal sanctions. Only in some quarters was a more “scientific” approach adopted, which also reflected anarchism’s desire to banish religious thought from the social sphere. Rather than condemn the left’s negative attitudes to homosexuality, the research plots how discourses became entangled, producing certain effects that must be understood within the context of the period.

Impact

One public talk at the University of Lisbon was given as part of this Fellowship in December 2025.

Publications and outputs

Two publications arose from this Fellowship:

• “Anticlericalism, effeminacy and homosexuality in early twentieth-century Portuguese and Brazilian anarchism”, Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, published online, 2025, pp. 1-18, available at https://doi.org/10.1080/14701847.2025.2520198
• “A questão da homossexualidade no anarquismo lusófono histórico”, MAPA: Jornal de Informação Crítica, 46 (2025), p. 16