Resumen de “Que degenerados, uma vergonha”: a reação conservadora contra a linguagem não binária no discurso de posse da acadêmica Heloísa Teixeira

Gabriel Chagas, Cristiane Soares, Gláucia Silva

• The use of nonbinary gender markings has generated conservative reactions from various sectors of Brazilian society. By using the word “outres” in her inauguration speech at the Brazilian Academy of Letters, Heloísa Teixeira brought to light the relevance of the debate about nonbinary language in Portuguese. In this article, we analyze comments posted on the video of her inauguration speech. We examine the recurrence of pathologizing and/or moralizing rhetoric in the comments as a way of delegitimizing nonbinary language and its users. From a decolonial perspective, we show that reactions against nonbinary language echo the coloniality of power and knowledge and reproduce a narrative of “degeneration” in the name of a fallacious linguistic purity.