Rio Carnival parade will spotlight sex workers in effort to dismantle stigma

RIO DE JANEIRO — When Lourdes Barreto fled her home in Brazil's northeastern state of Paraiba as a teenager — a move that launched her into sex work and a lifetime of activism — she never imagined that six decades later a samba school in Rio de Janeiro would pay tribute to her life's journey.

That's exactly what Porto da Pedra will do this weekend at Rio's famed Sambodrome as annual Carnival celebrations kick off. The samba school based in the low-income city of Sao Goncalo — across the bay from Rio — will celebrate Barreto and all sex workers in an effort to dismantle the stigma surrounding the profession.

''Who would have thought that a prostitute would be honored?'' the 83-year-old Barreto asked during a video call from her home in Belem, ahead of a trip to Rio for the parade.

Samba is an energetic Brazilian music and dance genre that developed in Afro-Brazilian communities. Schools spend months preparing a parade with a song, elaborate floats and costumes, which they then present to judges at the joyful, but fierce, competition during Carnival.

Porto da Pedra creative director Mauro Quintaes, who designed this year's theme for the school, previously curated two parades centered on populations living on the margins: thieves and people with severe mental health issues.

This year's parade, titled ''From life's oldest times, the sweet and bitter kiss of the night,'' serves as the final chapter in a trilogy Quintaes envisioned at the beginning of his career.

''The school is trying to make these women more seen, less invisible,'' said Quintaes. ''It's not an apology nor a glamorization.''

Sex work is not a crime in Brazil when performed voluntarily by adults. Since 2002, prostitution has been recognized as an official occupation by Brazil's labor ministry, allowing sex workers to access social security and other work benefits.

However, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects notes that police still target sex workers and carry out evictions.

This is largely because neither prostitution nor sexual exploitation — the latter of which is a crime — is explicitly defined in the law. According to a 2017 report by the nonprofit Davida, these legal gaps grant police discretionary power to regulate sex work arbitrarily.

Barreto co-founded the Brazilian Network of Prostitutes in the 1980s to fight for better rights for sex workers in Brazil. She stood up to the military police, campaigned to establish HIV prevention policies and even ran for a seat as a councilwoman.

In 2024, the BBC listed her as one of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world, alongside fellow countrywoman Olympic athlete Rebeca Andrade, French rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot and Nigerian climate campaigner Adenike Oladosu.

Sex work as taboo

While sex work has already been evoked in previous parades, Porto da Pedra's approach is groundbreaking for its central focus and emphasis on class struggle, said Juliana Barbosa, a communications professor at the Federal University of Parana and a Carnival expert.

Barbosa said samba schools, which emerged from Black communities, have a history of seizing on social issues to force a conversation.

''The theme stays for months within those communities, being sung about and discussed, and then it spreads to a very large number of people,'' Barbosa said. ''It can contribute to social change. Not as a rule, not on all subjects, but it has that tendency.''

Andrea de Andrade, 39, will lead Porta da Pedra's percussion section in the prestigious role of drum queen. Now a prominent social media figure, she recalls how Carnival themes from 20 years ago introduced her to issues and stories she had never heard about before.

Some 40 sex workers from all corners of Brazil are expected to march Saturday evening alongside hundreds of others, according to Quintaes.

Thauany Laressa, a 27-year-old sex worker from Brazil's northern state of Rondonia, reached out to the school after finding out about this year's theme. For too long, sex work has been taboo, she said.

''I hope that people who see the parade will have more compassion when interacting with sex workers and help them accept it as a profession,'' Laressa said. ''I hope that people will start respecting our lives, our way of life and our job.''

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