An estimated one million people turned out to celebrate Brazil Gay Pride on Sunday.
Floats blaring music lined Rio de Janeiro’s Avenida Atlantica across from the city’s iconic Copacabana beach, site of the 17th annual carnival-inspired party.
This year’s event called for an end to homophobia in Brazilian society.
Julio Moreira, president of Grupo Arco-Iris, which organizes the event, told Jornal do Brasil that violence against LGBT people is on the rise in Brazil.
“The Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender community spends most of the year in Brazil hiding, deprived of many of their rights,” he said.
“I am here to campaign for homophobia to become a crime under Brazilian law,” Katya Furacao, a school teacher dressed as Carmen Miranda for the parade, is quoted as saying by the BBC. “And to demand equal rights to marriage.”
According to Grupo Gay da Bahia, more than 266 LGBT people were murdered last year in Brazil, an increase of 6 over the previous year. Brazil has one of the world’s highest rates of anti-LGBT violence.
“We need to discuss this issue in the schools and in the National Congress,” Moreira said.
by On Top Magazine Staff
Source – On Top Magazine
