PET RODA SOCIAL discusses LGBT theme

"The objective of the event was to bring together people who could share their experiences related to access to health services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite and transgender (LGBT) groups, providing an open discussion to the public, debating a controversial topic that has been undergoing changes in the current paradigm in relation to health and society", reports the student and PET scholarship holder of the 5th semester of Dentistry at Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública, Ingrid Theresa Lino, 20 years old, who attended the PET RODA SOCIAL, at the Faculty of Management Sciences of Bahia (UNICENID), on the evening of October 28th.

The schedule, an initiative of PET Odonto da Bahiana, was open to the public and brought together students and professors of the Dentistry course at Bahiana, promoting a debate about the negligence of health agencies in relation to LGBTs. The opening table was composed by the co-tutor of the Dentistry PET of the Bahiana, Ricardo Araújo da Silva, journalist Rita Batista, sociologist Caio Cerqueira, Father Alfredo Dórea and Member of the National Council for Combating LGBT Discrimination, Keila Simpson.

"We don't have a discussion like this in the health area, it is very difficult for the training of health professionals to have debates like this one involving the LGBT group, specifically transsexuals, and we know that professionals need to master the subject to even deal with some demands that are routine in the daily life of the basic health unit. These professionals still have a series of fears and taboos for these treatments”, reports Professor Ricardo Araújo.

During the debate, issues were raised that hinder access to health care for the LGBT population and the constraints they are subjected to when entering the health service to obtain medical treatment.

“I work for a non-governmental organization that helps people with HIV and many of them are LGBT. The difficulty of accessing the service due to the LGBT condition is glaring. The girl who was born with a male genitor, the boy who was born with a female genitor, they still have a lot of difficulty in attending and are subjected to mockery. Therefore, I came to bring to the debate this pain, this suffering that I accompany daily and share with future health professionals and others present so that we can be a light for this society so repressive”, concludes Father Alfredo Dórea.

Journalist Rita Batista reports that the debate is of interest to the entire community for making this cut in health. “When we talk about unprepared people both in the health area and 'all in one' in the health trade, I extend this to society. I notice this a lot in relationships, in life and in communication, mainly because people still have a lot of difficulty and it's not just a lack of knowledge, but a matter of a social nature, in treating other people as they should be treated. I'm not just talking about kindness, formal and domestic education, I'm talking about the construction of the personality of this individual who needs to respect and live with differences”, he concludes.

“Actually, I think it's the best space I have to dialogue precisely when I come to debates like these. I'm Keila, I'm a 50-year-old transvestite and I say, everywhere I go, to break this gender barrier. I have a genital organ that says I'm male and I have this feminine look that says I'm female, so I end up breaking that gender barrier wherever she's present. I'm a prostitute, by my decision and I love doing prostitution and I don't want anyone to come against me because my place is there, on the street, when I'm being disputed by men. I'm a prostitute and I'm happy,” says Keila Simpson.

The coordinator of the Mothers for Diversity Group, Inês Silva, commented, during the debate, on her overcoming difficulties in the discovery of having two homosexual children and that she even attempted suicide in the two discoveries. "I have two children, a gay son and a lesbian daughter, I have been married for 28 years with the same husband and my discovery was not easy, first I found out that my daughter was a lesbian in a way, I confess, wrong on my part: by internet, in her personal e-mail, but I was always a very present mother, I always wanted my children's friends to visit my house and they always dated people of the opposite sex, until then they were heterosexual. But I realized there was something wrong with them both, and after a year my son was engaged and told me he was in love with another man. I got another shock. We lived in that standard society in which we build concepts and, accepting that, it was very complicated.”

According to the 4th semester student of Dentistry at Bahiana, Layana Sampaio, the experiences and opinions shared at the event will influence the way students will act in the labor market and their vision of what the Public Health System is really like. “The feeling I have is that there is already a way of functioning, we are following this way and, perhaps, not wanting to justify it, this happens when we are going to work professionally in public health centers. We see things happening in a way and we try to adapt, and, in fact, meetings like these are important to show that we must take a stand against the order that the system imposes”, he concludes.

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