Education, Memory, and Belonging: How do We Raise a New Generation Committed to Inclusion?

You’ve probably heard some version of this line from the Spanish philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” More than 100 years later, that idea still holds true, especially when we think about how societies build memory, rights, and ways of living together over time.

When we talk about diversity and inclusion, an important question comes up: how do we raise a new generation of young people capable of living with differences, confronting prejudice, and building communities where more people can belong? Part of the answer lies in education. Not just formal education, but also access to history, dialogue, and contact with experiences different from our own.

In recent years, I’ve found myself reflecting on something that comes up often in different conversations and on social media: the way the LGBTQIAP+ community itself relates to its many expressions and identities.

At times, criticism arises among people within the community itself, about ways of expressing oneself, living one’s sexuality, occupying spaces, or performing gender. This isn’t new, nor is it exclusive to this generation, but perhaps today it shows up with more visibility and speed on social media. Rather than debating who’s right or wrong in these conversations, maybe the more interesting question is: where does our capacity to understand experiences different from our own come from?

One possible answer lies in the repertoire we build over the course of our lives. The more stories, contexts, and diverse trajectories we know, the greater our capacity tends to be to understand realities we haven’t lived ourselves.

Many young LGBTQIAP+ people grew up in a very different landscape from the one previous generations experienced. That’s significant progress. But it also creates an interesting effect: when rights become part of everyday life, it can be harder to recognize that they are the result of long, and often fragile, historical processes.

What’s changed from then to now?

Criminalization of LGBT-phobia (2019): Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court ruled that homophobia and transphobia would fall under the Racism Law until Congress created specific legislation. Before that, LGBT-phobic attacks often had no clear legal framing.

• Right to self-determination in civil registries (2018): An important milestone was the Supreme Federal Court’s 2018 ruling allowing changes to civil registration without requiring surgery or judicial authorization.
• Same-sex civil marriage (2013): Brazil’s National Council of Justice ruled that notary offices could not refuse to perform marriages between people of the same sex. It may seem distant, but many people who are now just over 20 years old were born at a time when LGBT couples still had to fight just to visit a partner in the hospital or share health insurance without facing legal barriers.
• Recognition of same-sex civil unions (2011): The Supreme Federal Court officially recognized civil unions between people of the same sex. Before that, LGBT couples faced enormous legal difficulties around inheritance, health insurance, pensions, adoption, and more.
• Ruling against “gay conversion therapy” (1999): Brazil’s Federal Council of Psychology banned psychologists from treating homosexuality as a disease. This was extremely important, because conversion therapies were more common than many people realize.
• Removal of homosexuality from the list of diseases (1990): Although the World Health Organization officially removed homosexuality from its disease classification in 1990, in Brazil, “gay conversion” practices and rhetoric remained quite strong well into the 2000s.

Although these may seem like distant milestones, many of them happened just over a decade ago. That helps put into perspective how recent these changes are, and how they are still being consolidated. But to understand why this matters, we also need to look further back.

The history of the LGBTQIAP+ community is marked by moments of mobilization and resistance, as well as periods of collective pain, for example:

• 40 years ago, the first AIDS cases were reported in the U.S. (1981): The HIV/AIDS epidemic was one of the most traumatic chapters in contemporary LGBT history. Much of the LGBT mobilization of the 1980s grew out of the need to survive. Read the full article here.

• Stonewall and the spark of the modern LGBT movement (1969): The Stonewall Riots took place in June 1969, when patrons of the Stonewall Inn fought back against yet another police raid targeting LGBT people in New York. The protests lasted several days and marked a historic turning point: the LGBT movement shifted from seeking mere “quiet acceptance” to demanding pride, visibility, and rights. Read the full article here.

Learning about these events isn’t just about understanding the history of the LGBTQIAP+ community. It’s also about understanding how social change happens. Rights, public policies, and more inclusive ways of living together rarely emerge spontaneously; they are built over time by people, movements, and institutions.

The role of education in this process

When we talk about education here, we don’t mean just formal or academic information. We mean something broader: the capacity to develop a repertoire of knowledge, listening skills, coexistence, and understanding of different contexts.

In environments where people have contact with different stories and experiences, the possibility of understanding diversity grows, not as a problem, but as a defining feature of life in society.

When that repertoire isn’t present, it becomes easier for our interpretations of others to be shaped by limited references, rather than by the collective history that underlies those lived experiences. That’s why learning about the past isn’t a distant or abstract exercise. It’s a way of broadening how we see the present.

And none of this is necessarily a problem. It can even be a starting point for broader conversations. When there’s room for education and exchange, these differences stop being barriers and become opportunities for collective learning.

In an increasingly diverse and connected world, raising young people committed to inclusion doesn’t mean teaching ready-made answers or promoting a single way of thinking.

It means developing abilities such as:

• Listening to experiences different from one’s own;
• Understanding historical and social contexts;
• Recognizing situations of discrimination and exclusion;
• Building relationships based on respect and dignity;
• Engaging with different perspectives without giving up empathy;

Acting so that more people can take part in and belong to the spaces they occupy.
These skills are essential for any leader who wants to make a positive impact on their community.

So, when someone in the LGBTQIAP+ community is living their truth, carrying our flag, expressing their sexuality and gender without fear, remember that this is a reflection of a freedom hard-won through struggle, resistance, and many losses. And it’s always worth remembering: rights don’t appear out of nowhere, and they aren’t guaranteed forever. May we keep growing the community that fights for and watches over these rights. Let’s keep moving forward together, always with pride!

Article by Victor Terini – Communications Analyst at LALA Brasil