Tag: brazil gay rights

French parliament bans LGBT+ conversion therapy

Countries including Brazil and Malta have already moved to ban practices that seek to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity Dec 14 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – France’s parliament voted on Tuesday to ban so-called conversion therapy, joining a handful of countries that have taken steps to outlaw practices that seek to change a… Read more »

The “Deviant” African Genders That Colonialism Condemned

European travellers and anthropologists found that their gendered worldview didn’t easily map onto the societies they encountered. In “pre-colonial times,” wrote the late feminist scholar Niara Sudarkasa, women in West Africa were “conspicuous in high places.” They led armies, often played important consultative roles in politics, and in the case of the Lovedu people (present-day… Read more »

Brazil Celebrates Gay Pride And Favorable Supreme Court Ruling

Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians turned out in Sao Paulo to mark gay pride with a huge parade, after the president criticized a Supreme Court ruling making homophobia a criminal act. Steve Inskeep, Host: The new president of Brazil has been in office a little less than six months. Many people saw the election of… Read more »

Brazil Celebrates Gay Pride And Favorable Supreme Court Ruling

Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians turned out in Sao Paulo to mark gay pride with a huge parade, after the president criticized a Supreme Court ruling making homophobia a criminal act. Steve Inskeep, Host: The new president of Brazil has been in office a little less than six months. Many people saw the election of… Read more »

Brazil’s sole openly gay congressman leaves country after death threats

Jean Wyllys said he was currently outside of the country and had no plans to return after a growing number of threats in past year Brazil’s first and only openly gay congressman has announced that he is leaving his job – and the country – after receiving death threats. In a newspaper interview on Thursday,… Read more »

Brazil’s new president strips LGBTI rights on his first day in office

It was one of his first actions after his inauguration Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, has stayed true to his word and signed executive orders targeting the LGBTI community. The ‘proud homophobe’ used his first day in office to sign the orders. They will affect the LGBTI community, indigenous groups and descendants of slaves. Just… Read more »

Gay Couples Rush to Wed Before Brazil’s New President Takes Office

Sao Paulo, Brazil — Just hours after Jair Bolsonaro won Brazil’s presidential election in a landslide victory for conservatives, Carolina Zannata and her girlfriend called the closest public notary and set a date for their wedding. Gay marriage has been legal in Brazil since 2013, and Ms. Zannata said she and Aline Foguel had not… Read more »

2018 is turning into the most deadly for LGBTI people in Brazil

More than 300 people have been killed this year, the highest number yet in Brazil The rate of murders and violence against LGBTIs in Brazil has jumped likely making 2018 the most deadly year ever. More than 300 people have already been murdered this year, by this time last year, 220 LGBTIs had been killed.… Read more »

In pictures: Expelled for being gay

Brazilian photographer Nayara Leite has been exploring the lives of six Brazilian homosexuals who were expelled from their homes when they told their families they were gay. Leite asked them to send her a happy photograph of them as a child, which she then burnt – an act she feels reflects the rejection they had… Read more »

São Paulo’s gay pride parade – in pictures

Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in Brazil’s largest city for its 22nd annual celebration. Waving rainbow flags in a Carnival-like atmosphere, marchers paraded down the skyscraper-lined Avenida Paulista on Sunday to music blasting from 18 sound trucks, with revellers of all ages filling more than 10 city blocks A striking costume and rainbow… Read more »

Thousands revel in Brazil’s gay pride parade

Sao Paulo — Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Brazil’s largest city Sunday for its 22nd gay pride parade, which is considered one of the world’s biggest. Waving LGBT rainbow flags in a Carnival-like atmosphere, marchers paraded down Sao Paulo’s skyscraper-lined Avenida Paulista to music blasting from 18 sound trucks. Revelers of all ages,… Read more »

In Brazil, soccer has been mainly a straight guy’s sport. A new gay league is changing that.

Rio De Janeiro — Douglas Braga left his home in rural southeastern Brazil when he was 12, moving to Rio de Janeiro to pursue the Brazilian dream and become a professional soccer player. Training up to eight hours a day, he had to drop out of high school. He turned professional when he was 16,… Read more »

Thousands protest ruling to overturn ban on ‘conversion therapy’ for gays and lesbians in Brazil

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in downtown Sao Paulo on Friday to protest a court’s recent decision to overturn an 18-year ban on conversion therapy meant to “cure” gay people. Chants of “it’s not a disease” could be heard over songs including Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” as protesters flew rainbow flags and held banners demanding… Read more »

Brazil legalises ‘gay cure’ therapy as court rules homosexuality is a disease

Brazil has re-legalised so-called “gay cure therapy” as a judge deemed homosexuality to be a “disease”. Judge Waldemar Claudio de Carvalho overruled a 1999 resolution by the Federal Council of Psychology which prohibited the treatment of homosexuality by psychologists. The federal judge in Brasília ruled in favour of a psychologist whose license was revoked for… Read more »

Big Crowd Turns out for Colorful Gay Pride Parade in Rio

Tens of thousands of people have celebrated at Rio de Janeiro’s annual gay pride parade at Copacabana beach. Under a blazing sun, revelers wearing feathery costumes and wigs held up rainbow flags and danced along the promenade Sunday as music blasted from a half dozen sound trucks. Organizers said this year’s parade was focusing on… Read more »

Brazilian squatters offer shelter from anti-gay violence

A multi-colored gay pride flag hangs in a corner of a bare room in an abandoned Sao Paulo art deco building that was once the headquarters of Brazil’s social security agency. The room is home to several members of Brazil’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community seeking refuge from discrimination and hate crimes against LGBT… Read more »

More Openly Gay Olympians Than Ever, but No Chinese Among Them

Beijing — Peng Yanhui is celebrating the fact that a record number of openly gay athletes are taking part in the Olympics, while ruing that none are from China. Fifty-two competitors and coaches who are openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex are participating in the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, according to figures… Read more »

Brazil Is Confronting an Epidemic of Anti-Gay Violence

Rio De Janeiro — The assailant struck as Gabriel Figueira Lima, 21, stood on a street two weeks ago in a city in the Amazon, plunging a knife into his neck and speeding off on the back of a motorcycle, leaving him to die. A few days earlier, in the coastal state of Bahia, two… Read more »

European Union gives €500,000+ to help LGBTI people in Brazil start their own businesses

Micro Rainbow International secures funding through the European Union for a three-year project to help lift LGBTI people in Brazil out of poverty Not-for-profit social enterprise Micro Rainbow International (MRI) has announced that is has received funding from the European Union for a three-year project to help alleviate poverty among the LGBTI communities in Brazil.… Read more »

Report: 594 LGBT people murdered in Americas during 15-month period

A report the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released on Wednesday indicates anti-LGBT violence claimed the lives of at least 594 people in the Western Hemisphere between Jan. 1, 2013, and March 31 of this year. More than half of these reported deaths during this 15-month period took place in Brazil. These include an 8-year-old… Read more »

Brazil: Schoolboys wear skirts in protest after trans girl fined for wearing female uniform

A group of boys at a Brazil school have donned skirts, after a transgender girl was fined by teachers for wearing the “incorrect” uniform. 17-year-old Maria Muniz, who recently came out as trans at São Cristóvão do Colégio Pedro II, was disciplined by teachers and handed a fine after she wore a skirt to school,… Read more »

Brazil gay rights advocates call for ban on discrimination in large annual parade

Sao Paulo – Gay rights advocates called for a Brazilian law against discrimination as they gathered by the hundreds of thousands in Sao Paulo on Sunday for one of the world’s largest gay pride parades. The city blocked its main central avenue to allow room for colorful floats and exuberant crowds of people dressed as… Read more »