Discurso(s) jurídico(s) sobre homossexualidade : análise de acórdãos do Tribunal de Justiça do Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The present study intends to examine, in a qualitative way, the subjects, identified both in the active and in the passive pole, and the statements related to homophobia present in second stance decisions of jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of Rio Grande do Sul, with a focus on comparison with what was found in the predecessor research by Carrara and Vianna (2004). For this purpose, the cases were located through the jurisprudence search system and the archives department of the Court of Justice of Rio Grande do Sul. It was decided to use the thematic analysis methodology, through which 112 prosecutions and 100 cases were selected, categorized into thematic axes defined a priori, very similar to those of the predecessor research, and a posteriori, defined by the authors of this research. It was also added the creation of differentiated categories, more related to the type of crime committed, since specific trends were noticed within broader thematic axes. As a result, similarities were identified with several findings obtained in the research by Carrara and Vianna (2004), as well as the emergence of new words, new case trends, and new stereotypes. The judges' arguments could also lean both in a favorable and unfavorable sense for people identified as homosexuals, but the decisions did not necessarily seem to follow their moral inclinations; on the contrary, it was possible to notice an adherence to the recognition of the right to anti-discrimination of LGBT+ people. Having “homophobia” proved to be as heterogeneous and complex as at the time it was researched by Carrara and Vianna (2004), therefore, although changing the way it appears and is constituted discursively over the decades, but far from disappearing in the face of acquisition of rights, the need for more qualitative research that is able to identify it in other States and contemporary contexts is still current, so that it is not made invisible and that the ways to fight it are also updated according to the social, political and legal context.