OR I STRUGLE, OR I DIED: HIV/AIDS'S ACTIVISM AND PRODUCTION OF SUBJECTIVITY IN THE EXPERIENCE OF COLECTIVE LOKA DE EFAVIRENZ
Public Health; Political Activism; HIV; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Medical Anthropology.
Introduction: The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (aids) pandemic from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has broken geographic barriers in the world overwhelmingly and has raised discussions about morally sexual identities and practices as promiscuous and divergent. This condition, which is crossed by social markers of difference, has repercussions on the life experience of those living or living with HIV/aids, and on the agenda of their demands, personal engagement and collective mobilizations. In the current scenario, recent political and institutional demands have been based on the optimism of considering the advances in antiretroviral therapies as the only measure of treatment and as a definitive answer in the field of prevention, leaving aside issues such as human rights, social inequalities, among others. Objectives: To understand the relationship between HIV/aids activism in networks and social media and the production of the "person living with HIV/aids" (processes of subjectivation) from the Coletivo Loka of Efavirenz.
Methodology: This is a research anchored in the theoretical-methodological framework of Ethnography. Data were collected through individual interviews, socioeconomic questionnaire, participant observation insiders on the social network Facebook. Fieldwork took place from March 2017 to July 2018. The interlocutors were six activists, mostly blacks and browns, from the outskirts and / or inner cities, with sexual orientations and dissident gender identities, and were university students. The analysis took place through thematic categorization. Results: The performance of the Loka de Efavirenz is decentralized and horizontal. The objectives of the interlocutors in the social network included reporting life experiences with illness, disseminating the material they produced, making it public and available, and enabling an intersectional discussion of the epidemic through claims that included local and global demands such as therapeutic management, adherence and institutional racism. The main mobilization strategies were: elaboration of virtual content, production and presentation of artistic performances, actions with posters in universities, participation in national and international events, seminars, debates, acts and public demonstrations. Through mediation between different worlds and realities, activists see the existence of two "aids": AIDS related to biomedical and epidemiological aspects, and AIDS resulting from historical oppressions, subordination and economic interests that perpetuate social inequalities, inserted under the new effects of biopolitics or of a necropolitics. In addition, participants gathered key information on HIV/aids activism, such as social achievements in health and politics, coupled with the social, biological, and political impacts of the epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s. Conclusion: The current scenario presents itself as a political and social challenge to confront the HIV/aids epidemic and to strengthen activism. Thus, the results of this research can support intersectoral professional practices based on human rights and health needs of activists and people living with HIV/aids, in addition to increasing the political visibility of the topic and those involved, reinforcing the strategic and mediation between civil society and the state in the claim and maintenance of social rights.