UN Free & Equal Brazil Equality Champion and LGBTI activist Liniker calls on the rights of the LGBTI community to be respected, saying that “we are a part of humanity, and this must be acknowledged.”
Q&A
What would you like to communicate through your music? And why is that important to you?
My music was the way I found for my advocacy, to be what I am in all my potence as a person, as a human being. It means being able to speak about freedom and being free. Living in the body I live in, my music is something very dear to me, because it makes me listen to myself. It has affection in it, and it has myself in it, and that is why it is important.
Through my music I can start a dialogue and exchange views with the population, especially the Brazilian population. There is something special about my music because I am living it, I feel my questions in it and they are present in my lyrics and in my songs. Every time I sing and every time I share my music with the audience and with my fans, they start to listen to themselves too.
What can be done to ensure the rights of the LGBTI community are respected and protected?
First of all, people must understand that we need to be heard and that we need to be taken care of, especially when we consider the gigantic rates of transphobia. Transwomen, travesties and transmen are going through terrible things because we are not heard and we are not respected by the general population.
We need to be heard, we need to be respected, and we need projects that assure our security.
It is very important that all struggles are respected, that everything we are saying is heard. We are dying right now and we do not want to be violence figures no longer. It is evident that this is a global matter. We need to be heard, we need to be respected, and we need projects that assure our security.
There are increasing cases of violence, harassment and political aggression against LGBTI people all around the world, what do you want to say to the people that are carrying out such actions?
We are women, we are men, we are multiple in our identities, and just like everybody else everywhere in the world, we need to have our rights respected, not violated. We are a part of humanity.
We are people. We are human beings. We are women, we are men, we are multiple in our identities, and just like everybody else everywhere in the world, we need to have our rights respected, not violated. We are a part of humanity, and this must be acknowledged.
This is what speaking about us at schools means, for instance. The most important thing is making this issue casual, something ordinary, instead of something at the margins.
What is your message to young people to build a more inclusive world for the future?
Let’s love each other, let’s hear each other. Let’s take these words forward. The future is forward, Gilberto Gil told me once. So be it, then. Let’s move forward and let’s take our people with us. Let’s go. We are here.
Liniker is UN Free & Equal Brazil Equality Champion since 2018. She is a musician whose identity as a trans black women floods her lyrics and her songs. She is 23 years old and comes from Araraquara, state of Sao Paulo. She conquered the music scene in Brazil with the hits “Zero” and “Flutua”. Her latest launch is “Calmô”.