Students of LGBT activism have long documented that political gains by gays and lesbians have outpaced those of the trans community. Yet, in a marked shift from decades of exclusionary politics within social movement spaces and institutional politics, trans activists in Brazil have achieved historic levels of political representation in contemporary politics. In many ways, Brazilian travesti e transexual activists are now at the helm of shaping national and international conversations on trans rights. This talk situates representation strategies developed within the coalitional LGBT movement alongside the framework of participatory democracy and, more recently, electoral politics.

Jacob R. Longaker (he/him) is a teacher-scholar-activist with a passion for harnessing community organizing, advocacy, and critical pedagogy in pursuit of social justice. Jacob's research and teaching explore strategies for transforming our organizations and institutions into more representative, equitable, and inclusive spaces for historically underrepresented and underserved groups. In his work, Jacob has collaborated for over a decade with Brazilian LGB, travestis, mulheres transexuais, e homens trans movements, leveraging an intersectional lens that centers racialized and classed citizenships within institutional innovations of democratization.

Jacob's published work appears in Politics, Groups, and Identities, Transgender Rights, Politics (University of Michigan Press), and LGBT Politics and Policy (Oxford University Press) and has been supported by the Fulbright-Hays Program. Currently, Jacob serves as Director of Diversity & Social Justice Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jacob holds a Ph.D. in Political Science (2016), Graduate Certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (2013), M.A. in Political Science (2013), and B.A. cum laude in Political Science and International Studies (2009) from the University of Kansas. Jacob studied International Relations and Social Sciences at Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo in 2007-8.