Between trauma and resistance: Pride, pleasure, and purpose in the lives of trans and gender diverse activists in Brazil.

Résumé

OBJECTIVE: This study explored how community resilience and resistance manifest in the experiences of trans and gender diverse (TGD) people engaging in activism in a medium-sized Brazilian town. It aimed to understand how TGD activists navigate political violence and identify elements of community resilience and resistance within their activist work.METHOD: We employed a qualitative participatory approach, centering the lived experiences of TGD activists. We collaborated and conducted semistructured interviews with six TGD activists. The study was theoretically informed by Liberation Psychology and the multisystemic resilience framework. Data were analyzed using a reflexive thematic analysis, enriched by an intersectional lens.RESULTS: The analysis generated three interrelated themes, each encompassing multiple strengths and relational resources. Pride captured expressions of identity pride, community connectedness, and aesthetic audacity. Pleasure combined accounts of gender euphoria, cultural engagement, and experiencing trans bodies as sources of political resistance. Purpose illuminated how meaning-making practices were shaped by serving future generations and awareness of intersecting oppressions.CONCLUSIONS: Activism is often incorporated by activists as a meaning-making framework. It can contribute to addressing psychosocial trauma by fostering the development of psychosocial strengths, such as pride, a sense of purpose, and experiences of pleasure validated within community contexts. These findings have implications for research, practice, and policymaking, underscoring the role of community engagement in well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).