Historically, the queer community has not been portrayed in mainstream culture as being capable of protecting children and young people.
Yet my uncle Ricardo, himself an openly gay man, was the ultimate guardian of my childhood. When I was growing up, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, he lived with my mother, grandmother and me.
He and his fellow guardians drew such an assertive and powerful map of survival that we, their queer descendants, have an obligation not just to survive but to thrive.
I am alive and proudly effeminate, even though I was raised in a country with a continuing history of violence against L.G.B.T.Q.