LGBT News Brazil elects an homophobic, racist and violent president

We were defeated in today's election.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46013408

The "thing" (as some of us call him) is famous for violent remarks, such as "We will shoot these petistas [members/supporters of the worker's party]", "To defend our children, I'm an homophobic, with pride!", "
The lightest afro-descendant there weighed seven arrobas". He recently said that women, black people and LGBT+ people should stop being so whiny.

And things are already problematic. We have more reports of threats of violence in many places of the country (like people saying they will kill gays - there were previous reports like this during his campaign). In Curitiba, a gay bar issued a warning because of people threatening gays there (apparently, a guy was murdered - yet to confirm). Someone used ###### to spread hate messages, like "We will use this app as a bait for you, gays".

Of course, the histeria will diminish. The first days are always more problematic. However, it's impossible to deny that Brazil will go through dark times.

I fear for my safety. I'll stop going to my boxing gym, because i know most people there (including the owner) supports the "thing", and I simply don't feel safe, knowing them and how they think.

However, as much as i fear, I also know that, even if i lay low for a while (i'll do that), the "war" isn't over. Organized, we will go through this. Together. The flame of hope is still burning bright.

Thanks everyone that supports Brazil's LGBT community. We will suffer. But we will survive.

EDIT:

Dr. Sabrina Fernandes, an important activist, made a video about this (in English). I strongly recommend everyone to watch it.

 

@fadedstar Yes, the left could be better organized. I hope we manage to do that to resist him.

@Browncoat Thanks Browncoat, i appreciate it.

I have updated the post with an interesting video about all of this.

 

Thanks for your thoughts, @RainbowGreen

I do believe our situation here is worse, considering the elected candidate openly talks about murdering people. However, i also think the entire world is suffering with conservative views right now. Regardless of who is worse or not-that-bad, we need to stand together.

 

I disagree. It is not "pure hate". Sure, there are people who feel that way, but hate is a powerful tool in politics - one that is frequently used by conservatives.

Note that i'm not saying everyone that identify themselves as a conservative is an inherently bad person, or anything like that. But we need to see things in context, especially considering history. Hate is used to manipulate people - like it is being used in Brazil right now to elect that man and to give power to certain groups. It isn't "hate for the sake of hate", as much as it appears to be that way, if you consider just the common people who support politicians like that.

@Kira: Thanks for your words.. I do believe that, unfortunately, it's not just on the US. We had brexit, we had Trump, we now have Bolsonaro, and other examples are raising all over the world.

But let's not lose hope. As you said, let's be careful, but plan how we are going to resist this.

 

Thanks @smurf, i appreciate it.

 

Your point isn't clear to me. We agree that there are politicians who use hate and fear to seize power and control.

In any way, it is clear that hate and fear were used in his campaign (and are still being used now), and there are other politicians around the world who are also using this to gain power. If that is clear, then i believe there there is no honest way to justify this, as the use of hate by politicians ends up in an increase in violence against many groups. Directly or indirectly, speeches that aim to stimulate hate and fear in people are responsible for the death of many.

 

Thanks Vega222, for your empathy.

Brazil is, according to GGB (Grupo Gay da Bahia - Gay Group of Bahia), Brazil has the world's highest LGBT+ murder rate (i'm not sure if there's a English version of their studies - will check it later). The Trans Murdering Monitoring project confirms that: In the 2008-2017 period, there were 2609 murders of trans and gender diverse people worldwide. 1071 happened in Brazil.

Of course, it's a large country, with a population bigger (in numbers) than most countries, and thus, one can argue that there is a proportion to be considered here. Still, it is undeniable that the violence against LGBT+ people is a really, really serious problem.

Brazil is a country where religious fundamentalism is really strong. Most people don't usually admit that they are homophobes, even when they are. It's like "Oh, i'm not an homophobe, but I don't want my son dating another man. Because, you know, I have nothing against gays, but i wouldn't like it". And there are those who act like that near other people or when they are alone, but attack LGBT+ people in groups.

However, with an elected candidate that openly says things like "I'm an homophobe, proudly" and "I prefer that my son dies in a car accident than showing up at home with [another man]" (in the original phrase he says "bigodudo", which is something like "a man with a huge moustache". And that is giving homophobes courage to "leave their closets" - some were secretly violent, but now, with someone to represent them in government, many are not hiding anymore, they are openly threatening LGBT+ people.

Of course, there are countries where things are worse, like in ones where being gay is against the law. However, Brazil frequently tries to promote the image of a "friendly country", but things aren't exactly like that, especially if you aren't in a privileged economical class.

 

It is true that the Worker's Party became too confident and ended up making some serious mistakes. However, there's also a huge campaign to promote hate on them, and to blame them for everything bad that happens in Brazil. The "antipetismo" (anti-PT, anti-Worker's Party) is huge, but most people don't have any idea of the details involved - they just think that PT is corrupted, and thus is the party to blame for the difficulties we are facing (i'm not saying there aren't corruption roots into that party, but it certainly isn't exclusive to them).

I just finished reading a book yesterday, that come out very recently, that is called "O Ódio como Política" (Hate as Politics), which describes an overview of how the right wing grew during the last years and ended up in what is happening today. Considering the military dictatorship, the actions of think tanks and other organized conservative and liberal groups, it is possible to note that what is happening now is the result of actions that were happening not only on recent years, but even before the Worker's Party reached power (in 2003, when Lula became president - he was arrested recently, but there are still many controversies surrounding his prison, including the fact that those who were accusing him seem to be really close to the "other side").

In any way, i'm digressing. You are right, i hope we can organize ourselves to be able to help and defend each other.

 

That's not my research subject, so my knowledge is limited, to be honest, and a considerable part is restricted to the brazilian context. Like i said, the connection between the military dictatorship in Brazil and the oppression we've been facing is quite clear. For instance, one of the things Bolsonaro and his supporters are using is the anti-communism discourse.

That has been "ressurected" from the military dictatorship, when communists where hunted, tortured and killed (we have the example of Olga Benário, who has been arrested here and then sent to the nazis, who gassed her). I'm not saying that what happened then is happening right now (hopefully it won't), but they are using similar ideas (with Bolsonaro even praising colonel Ustra in one of his speeches, during the voting for the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff. Ustra was one of the torturers who worked for the dictatorship regime).

According to the book i mentioned (unfortunately, i believe it isn't available in English, at least for now), together with the anti-communism discourse, religious fundamentalism and ultraliberalism are also playing a role in what is happening in Brazil and the world. All of these things are useful to their interests, and it is hard to understand the whole situation without considering these perspectives. The religious fundamentalism is a main concern for us, LGBT+, since it refers to the absolute and moralist discourses of people who believe that "LGBT people are going to hell" and that sort of thing.

Thinking worldwide, people are frequently connecting Bolsonaro's ideas and tatics to the ones Trump uses. Here's a text from The Guardian about this: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...brazil-presidential-candidate-trump-parallels . From the text:

There's also a number of non-brazilian intellectuals who wrote about this: https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/10/24/inenglish/1540394160_774741.html

I still need to understand and study more about how all of this is connected internationally. But, even if every place has it's own context and particularities, which we can't ignore, there are interests and groups that have major presence worldwide, and not only in a single country. And by that I'm obviously not referring to any "magic" or "conspirationist theories" like the illuminati or something like that. I mean groups who detain a huge economical power, which can benefit from the control this type of government can bring.

For instance, Bolsonaro already announced that he plans to fuse the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Environment here, which will severely weaken the power to preserve the environment, and will open the doors to (even more) predatory exploration of natural resources. If you include the fact that he is a defender of privatizations (selling governamental industries and organizations to private groups), this means that he will open the predatory exploration of Brazil's natural resources to international companies. I doubt that money will return or benefit the people here.