LGBT Rights Are Human Rights: Social Work and the Fight Against the Lgbtphobic Discourse of “Gay Cure”

Abstract

This paper proposes to critically examine the LGBTphobic comments of social workers against the content of the video For Social Work there is no "gay cure", created by the Brazilian Federal Council of Social Work (CFESS). Thus, based on the theoretical and methodological principles of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this research investigates how the construction of meanings of the arguments made in those prejudiced posts proceeds. CDA proposes to describe, interpret and disseminate how forms of power, domination and social inequality are (re)produced in discursive practices, in their socio-political and cultural contexts. More particularly, this study turns its attention to the rhetorical appeals of ethos and pathos observed in those statements that were favorable to the proposition of therapies for sexual (re)orientation ("gay cure"), thus reproducing the hate speech, stigmatization and discrimination against the human rights of the members of the gender and sexuality diverse community. The findings can be arranged into five analytical categories: the cis-hetero-compulsory rhetoric, the "freedom of thought" rhetoric, the "right to choose" rhetoric, the neoconservative rhetoric and the religious rhetoric.