Heterosexual Pride Day in Brazil: to be or not to be?
Elena Vnorovscaia / Chişinău / Moldova.ORG / -- City council of the biggest town in South America, Sao Paulo, has approved a law creating a Heterosexual Pride Day to be celebrated on the third Sunday of each December.
As the lawmakers say, the straight-pride parade is not an “anti-gay” day at all.
The legislation's author, Carlos Apolinario, said the idea for a Heterosexual Pride Day is "not anti-gay but a protest against the privileges the gay community enjoys."
For instance, he mentioned how Sao Paulo's huge gay pride day parade is held every year on Paulista Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares in this city of 20 million people, while the March for Jesus organized by evangelical groups is not allowed on the same avenue.
"I respect gays and I am against any kind of aggression made against them," Apolinario said. "I have no trouble coexisting with gays as long as their behavior is normal."
In their turn, the Brazilian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Association (LGBT) criticized the legislation, saying it could provoke homophobic violence.
"How many LGBTs will be attacked because of the message that only heterosexuality makes someone a moral person and a good citizen," states the LGBT.
"The celebration of heterosexual pride is inappropriate because it belittles the just cause of the LGBT community. Unlike homosexuals, heterosexuals are not discriminated against simply for being heterosexuals", adds the association.
In a recent report, another gay rights group Grupo Gay da Bahia said 260 gays were murdered last year in Brazil, up 113 per cent from five years earlier.
Nevertheless, the new law about Heterosexual Pride Day will become a legal one only after the Sao Paulo Mayor Gilberto Kassab’s decision to sign the legislation.
Mayor hasn’t said yet whether he supports this heterosexual proposal or not. The official just said that he was studying it.
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