Brazil: ¿A dangerous country for the LGBT community?

Homophobia in Brazil has been expressed from threats, rejection and even killing members of the LGBT community by Brazilians themselves

A safe place for the LGBT community is Ipanema, in Rio de Janeiro, where the recognition of difference is tolerated thanks to a more open mentality, far from any religious behavior. The samples of affection integrate the panorama in Ipanema, but everything changes in the rest of the country indicates the BBC.

Leer en español: Brasil: ¿Un país peligroso para la comunidad LGBTI?

In 2011, a Ministry of Justice study never before conducted on homophobic violence, revealed that during that year there were 19 cases of aggression against gay or lesbian couples.

Before the world, Brazil has shown itself to be a liberal territory. In fact, if you look at the political map you will find that in the last 10 years the left has governed, promoted and defended the diversity and rights of the different communities, including the LGBT. However, the reality is more conservative.

Former President Dilma Rousseff, for example, did everything possible to draw up a law against homophobia, but it was not approved. Those who rejected his proposal and blocked it by voting negatively in the Senate were the most conservative political sectors, who responded faithfully to the religions taught by the evangelical Brazilian churches, says El Mundo de España.

And is that in 2011, when Rousseff presented the project, evangelical sectors as preachers, headed by Silas Malafaia, said that, "This anti-homophobic bill is a blatant attempt to block freedom of expression," trying to declare this way as victim, sending a message to Brazilians that religion and "values" were losing ground, which of course was not allowed. For now, according to El Mundo, a same-sex couple can marry if they do so through a judicial decision, as they are not covered by any law.

The problem, in the current context, is that if that right -considered like that in other Latin countries like Uruguay- faced a high complexity to be fulfilled, with Jair Bolsonaro, openly homophobic and who rejected at all costs the anti-homophobia law of Dilma, what It will be even more. The LGBTI community is likely not to expect a strengthening and protection of their right by Bolsonaro. The opposite could happen.

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Cure homosexuality

Although psychological therapies of sexual reversal were banned in 1999 by the Federal Council of Psychology of Brazil, the federal judge, Waldemar Cláudio de Carvalho of the capital Brasilia, at the end of 2017 made the decision to give the faculty to psychologists to treat the homosexuality as a disease. This order allows them to do the previously forbidden sexual reversion therapies.

The judge's ruling gives Brazilian psychologists the power to "promote studies or personalized professional attention in a reserved manner, in relation to sexual orientation."

The decree by the judge was categorically considered a setback for the LGBTI community. The rejection in social networks was manifested with the hashtag #Tratesusprejudicios and #LaHomofobiaesunaenfermedad, in which people made fun of posting videos looking for some medication to cure homosexuality, as ABC of Spain points out.

"Brazilian psychology will not be an instrument to promote suffering, IGNORE INTOlerance, and exclusion", the Federal Council of Psychology announced in a statement on the subject.

Deaths by homophobia

According to the International Association of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgender and Intersex (ILGA), in 2016 killed 340 people for homophobia. On the other hand and with information collected by the Time of the Secretariat of Human Rights of Brazil, in 2016 received "1876 complaints related to the violation of LGBT rights, 61% higher than 2011, when for the first time the service began to work. Of the total of last year, the states of São Paulo (14.7%) and Rio de Janeiro (6.4%) lead the number of complaints ".

In Sao Paulo, at the beginning of 2018, reports the O Globo of Brazil, the death of Sidnei Marques Prandina, 49 years old (found dead on the Pinheiros River), and the death of the 29-year-old Diego Vieira Machado, who died in the campus of the island of Fundão da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) they agree on two things: both were beaten violently for being gay and their cases continue unpunished.

Thus, the arrival of Jair Bolsonaro, to the presidency, can bring a darker landscape for those who belong to the LGBT community in Brazil.  

LatinAmerican Post | Edwin Gustavo Guerrero Nova

Translated from: 'Brasil: un país peligroso para la comunidad LGBTI'

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