New data has revealed that there was a worrying 30% increase in LGBTQ hate crimes in 2017 in Brazil.
Grupo de Bahia have reported that there were 387 homocides as a result of homophobia or anti-gay violence last year, indicating a sharp rise in fatalities.
It might comes a surprise, by more than 40% of all anti-LGBTQ hate crimes in the world take place in Brazil.
Most will find that statistic shocking considering it appears to be one of the more gay-friendly places to live and visit.
Aside from their massive Sao Paolo Pride celebration, Brazil has marriage equality, and legal recognition for transgender people.
But as this latest data suggests, LGBTQ people are still very much in danger of violent attacks because of their sexuality.
Anthropologist and president of Grupo Gay de Bahia, Luiz Mott, has claimed that the rising violence has come about following the prominence of ultraconservative politicians in the country.
Many of the top officials are linked to the country’s powerful evangelical caucus in congress.
upslon via Flickr
Related: Congratulations! Brazil’s first openly gay mayor marries his longtime partner
Just last year, Rio’s Mayor Marcelo Crivella claimed homosexuality was the result of botched abortions.
“It’s a discourse that destroys solidarity and equates LGBT people to animals,” Luiz Mott explained.
Jurema Werneck, executive director at Amnesty International Brazil, added: “In the last decade Brazil looked to produce policies that could protect vulnerable groups like gay and trans people but they mostly failed, due to lack of investment or change in vision of policy.”
Back in September, a Brazilian judge overturned an 18-year ban on gay ‘conversion therapy’.
Waldemar de Carvalho, a federal judge in the capital of Brasília, overturned a 1999 ruling by the Federal Council of Psychology forbidding psychologists from offering treatments that claim to ‘cure’ homosexuality.
The decision came after psychologist Rozangela Justino, an evangelical Christian who claims homosexuality is a “disease”, had her license revoked last year for offering to ‘convert’ gay people to heterosexuality.
Rogério Giannini, president of the Federal Council of Psychology, said in a statement that the judge’s decision “opens the dangerous possibility of the use of sexual reversion therapies” and promised to challenge it legally.
“There is no way to cure what is not a disease,” he said. “It is not a serious academic debate.”
Latest
