Nine out of ten judges voted yes to the bill in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The penalty framework is the same as for racism. Thus, you risk two to five years in prison and fines if you express homophobia or transphobia in Brazil. This comes after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, better known as Lula, has stated that he wants more democratic laws. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in connection with a women’s march in Brasília in Brazil in August. Photo: Gustavo Moreno / AP “Proud homophobe” Brazil has seen a change in the political discourse towards gays and transgender people after President Lula took over from Jair Bolsonaro. According to The Guardian, the former president has called himself a “proud homophobe”, and has expressed himself homophobic several times. Among other things, he is said to have expressed concern that Brazil will become “a paradise for homosexuals”. Jair Bolsonaro signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration in 2020. Photo: UESLEI MARCELINO / Reuters In 2019, the Supreme Court passed a similar law, which criminalized hate speech against the LGBTQ community in general, but not at the individual level, as now. Then Bolsonaro called the law a “complete mistake”. He asked to get an evangelical judge to the court, because he thought they needed “balance”. LGBT courts in Brazil 1830: Same-sex sex is decriminalized. 2011: Same-sex couples get the same rights as heterosexual couples, and can register partnerships. 2013: Lesbians, gays and bisexuals are allowed to serve in the military. 2013: Same-sex marriage becomes legal. 2015: Same-sex couples are allowed to adopt. 2018: Transgender people get the right to change their gender and name on their birth certificate. 2018: Conversion therapy becomes illegal. 2019: Discrimination against LGBT is criminalised. 2020: Homosexuals are allowed to donate blood. 2023: Homophobic and transphobic statements against individuals can be punished with imprisonment. Source: Equaldex. Democratic laws The law is one of several that the left-wing PT party, led by Lula, has wanted to introduce. The aim is to secure the rights of minorities and women in the country. One of the first things Lula did when he became president in January was to withdraw Brazil from the Geneva Consensus Declaration. A declaration former president Jair Bolsonaro signed. Its purpose is to secure the rights of women and the “family”, but has been called an anti-abortion declaration. The declaration states, among other things, that “there is no international right to abortion” and “under no circumstances should abortion be presented as a way of family planning”. President Joe Biden also withdrew the United States from the declaration when he became president in 2021. Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro and former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a meeting in 2019. It was Pompeo who initiated the Geneva consensus declaration. Photo: Marcos Correa / Reuters In addition to this, Lula has recently signed an equality law, which will ensure equal pay for women and men. – I think that Brazil will slowly find itself, and that democracy will win little by little, said the Brazilian president in an interview with CNN earlier this year. Hope for the future The country has struggled with homophobic attitudes for a long time. In 2022, 273 LGBTQ people will have died as a result of violent attacks. 228 of the attacks were characterized as murder. In the LGBTQ community in Brazil, Lula is therefore seen as a president who now gives them hope for the future, and who they believe wants to secure their rights. Also the last time Lula was president, from 2003 to 2010, he worked for gay rights. In 2008, he called homophobia “the most perverse disease in the human mind”, according to Pink News. “Out with Bolsonaro” reads the banner. The picture is from a parade against homophobia and transphobia in São Paulo, Brazil in 2022. Photo: Andre Penner / AP
ttn-69
Brazil makes it a criminal offense to incite homosexuals and transgender people – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
