EXCLUSION OF DISSIDENCE AND GENDER DIVERSITY IN THE CHILEAN HEALTH SYSTEM

Abstract

This research examined activists’ speech of gender diversity and dissidences regarding their exclusion in the Chilean health system. The study was situated in the region of Valparaíso, which from 2017 to 2020 ranks first nationally for having the majority of homolesbobitransphobia cases. Data collected through interviews were examined using the three-dimensional method of critical discourse analysis. The results reveal the heteronormative predominance in health institutions that discriminate diversities and dissidences from the ignorance of professionals who represent the biomedical paradigm, preserving biopolitical violence, historical invisibility and deterioration of their mental health. However, dissident activists are able to emancipate themselves from these power structures, rating the current socio-health crisis resulting from COVID 19, a favorable scenario for the fissure of heterocentrism that insists on remaining imbricated in the health system, as in LGBTIQ+ collectives, paradoxically denoting exclusion in networks for inclusion, expressed in trans and plumophobia.