Social occupational therapy, social justice, and LGBTI+ population: with whom we produce our reflections and actions?

Abstract

Abstract This reflection article had the purpose of discussing possible relationships between social occupational therapy, the concept of social justice, and possible justifications for the production of knowledge and practices with the LGBTI+ population. For this, the conceptual production of social justice developed by Nancy Fraser was taken as a basis, which for the author can be analyzed through demands for redistribution, recognition, and representation. Furthermore, the main elements for the identification and conceptual delimitation of the subjects with which this theoretical-methodological perspective decides to focus its reflections and actions together were sought in the history of the constitution of social occupational therapy. It was possible to highlight the relevance of the themes of genders and sexualities for the production of reflections and practices from the theoretical-methodological perspective of social occupational therapy, since the dissident subjects and groups of genders and sexualities experience, in their daily lives, social inequalities, and injustices that prevent them from accessing certain social rights, exercising their citizenship, having their demands represented in state political dimensions and having their existence recognized in different social realities. This proposal for reflection is not based on the understanding that these subjects and groups demand professional actions because they are considered “vulnerable”, but because they understand that by producing experiences that go beyond gender and sexuality norms, these subjects and groups go through numerous situations of violence and oppression, different forms of social injustice, and neglect of social rights.