Journalism in Brazil: interview with Caê Vasconcelos

“Every time I write about Brazil being the country that kills the most transgender and transvestite people, I ask that it be the last year”, he says. Photo: courtesy

Caê Vasconcelos is a Brazilian journalist with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism at Faculdades Integradas Alcântara Machado (FIAM), in São Paulo. He has worked for Ponte Jornalismo, Agência Mural de Jornalistas das Periferias, and ESPN Brasil, and is dedicated, above all, to covering human rights, public security, and LGBTQ+ issues. Vasconcelos has increasingly occupied more space in the Brazilian media by reporting on transsexuality and advocating for the proper treatment of the issue in the press.

His debut book as a journalist, Transresistência: pessoas trans no mercado de trabalho (Dita Livros, 2021), in Portuguese, shares stories of the struggle of this group for rights and includes a statement about his own experience as a trans man born in the suburb of São Paulo. The work is a landmark of his engagement in defense of the visibility of this part of the population in society. Read more in the interview below.

Enio Moraes Júnior — You are a young journalist, who has been working as a reporter for less than five years. How do you evaluate the role of Brazilian journalism in the quality of democracy in the country?

Caê Vasconcelos — Fundamental. I started my bachelor degree in Journalism in 2013, when this whole political movement that we are living now began. It was precisely the demonstrations of…