Fighting, loving and suffering among the Mothers for Diversity

Abstract This article is based on the author’s dialogue with the association Mães pela Diversidade (Mothers for Diversity), an NGO located in the Brazilian state of Goiás, to analyze the performance of “maternal activism” opposed to violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, travesti, transgender, intersex, queer and other non-straight gender expressions (LGBTIQ+). Through verbal and drawn ethnographic records, I propose to reflect on the ways emotions are dramatized in social and political struggles that claim for justice, denounce the violation of human rights, and building a network of mutual support.