Urban imaginaries and transgender and homosexual groups

The representations about the Cidade Baixa neighborhood (Porto Alegre/RS/Brazil)

Abstract

This paper is part of the research project “Digital Porto Alegre Imaginated”, which comprises an international study on urban imaginaries. The goal of the text is analyze the symbolic components from the citizens’ representations about the Cidade Baixa neighborhood, in Porto Alegre, associated with the presence of transgender and homosexual groups. It uses as a basis the theoretical-methodological framework of urban imaginaries, proposed by Armando Silva. This is a quali-quantitative and descriptive research that presents the official information about the neighborhood and compares it with the results achieved through a questionnaire applied to 160 people from Porto Alegre between April and May 2022. It appears that the place is identified from the occupation of transgender and homosexual groups, becoming an emblem of the neighborhood. This representation is contemporary, but is based on the history of the neighborhood, which was a stronghold of the “Baixa Cidade”, frequented by minority social groups. The representation of the neighborhood as a nocturnal bohemian space legitimizes it as a space of resistance and struggle for rights, as it involves the search for occupation of city spaces. It concludes that the Cidade Baixa neighborhood is represented as a territory of homosexuals and transgenders, representative of the social practices of these groups that are manifested by the joy and bohemia of the place.