June 10, 2008
Brazilian Prez Supports Gay Equality
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Brazilian President Luiz Lula made a principled stand for equality and fairness with a national conference on GLBT issues.
The First National Conference of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites, and Transsexuals began June 5 by decree of President Lula, according to an article published June 9 at anti-gay Web site LifeSiteNews.com, which characterized the conference as an attempt by Lula at "promoting and defending the homosexual agenda."
The president, who exhorted his countrymen to embrace tolerance, was quoted by the LifeSiteNews.com article as saying he would be "going to do all that is possible so that the criminalization of homophobia and the civil union may be approved."
Lula also referred to homophobia as "the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head," the article said.
LifeSiteNews.com reported that MixBrasil, a gay site, reported on the conference as well, noting that Paulo Vanucchi, Brazil's Human Rights Secretary, made a point of recalling that in addition to Jews, other minorities were also murdered by the Nazis, including gays.
Saying that "homophobia is incompatible with democracy," Vanucchi also noted parallels in the civil rights struggle of gays and that of blacks. Vanucchi also compared the GLBT struggle for equality to that of the elderly and the disabled.
LifeSiteNews.com also reported that the leader of a Brazilian GLBT equality group called for legislation laying out, in detail, the rights and protections that should be guaranteed to the GLBT community.
The president of the Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites, and Transsexuals, Toni Reis, advocated a Gay Statute, which would be similar to the already-existing Child and Adolescent Statute, codifying in law specific rights that the nation's legal framework could not prejudicially deny to GLBT citizens.
Reis further advocated for civil unions and protection for GLBT citizens in the form of laws against homophobia, LifeSiteNews.com reported, though details were not provided by the article.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
