Intellectual work and LGBTI+ activism: political struggle and subjectivity converted into subject and object of knowledge – the reciprocal relationships between theory and praxis

Abstract

The article discusses how research, theoretical study, and LGBT+ activism contribute to intellectual formation, producing a world view, guiding action, and the way of being and living. We argued that the contact between social movements and academia has affected both authors of this essay. We present aspects of our trajectories, indicating how we have been impacted by the willingness to articulate theoretical discussion with the demands of social movements; we examine the contributions of Herbert Marcuse, in Marxism and Feminism, in our analysis of the struggle of the LGBTI+ movement, incorporating the thought of this author, who reevaluated the possibilities of political action and social transformation even with the persistence of barbarism in culture, politics, economy and social relations. Finally, we conclude with considerations about the need to combine the fight against domination, articulating class, gender, sexuality, and disability as way of combating the aversion to difference and diversity.