Coming Out of the “Ivory Tower”: Preventing Violence Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity at the University

Abstract

Violence against the LGBTQIAPN+ population is a topic that touches countless people who do not fit into the socially established cisheteronormative pattern. Studies indicate that, as a part of society, the university reproduces this violence by not creating effective prevention and overcoming strategies. Supported by dialogic learning and Communicative Methodology, this article presents the results of an investigation with 18 undergraduate students that sought to point out how a public university in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, works to combat prejudice based on sexual and gender diversity in its spaces, identifying the excluding and transforming elements capable of promoting, preventing, and overcoming violence against LGBTQIAPN+ people. As the main result, this research indicates that the public positioning of the university management, the establishment of policies to combat violence, and training spaces on the subject for students, professors, and other employees throughout the academic environment, provided a more welcoming, respectful, and prejudice-free space for this people.