LGBT rights in Brazil

The number of LGBT rights in Brazil have expanded since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.Fact|date=August 2007

Timeline

*1830: Dom Pedro I signed into law the Imperial Penal Code. It eliminates all references to sodomy. [ [http://www.brazzil.com/blamar00.htm "Beyond Carnival"] . Green, James. The University of Chicago Press. 1999.]

*1979: O Lampião, a gay magazine, written by a lot of famous authors, like João Silvério Trevisan, Aguinaldo Silva and Luiz Mott, was created, surviving just until the next year.

*1980: Grupo Gay da Bahia, the oldest gay rights organization in Brazil, is founded in Salvador, Bahia, together with SOMOS, another organization in São Paulo, State of São Paulo.

*1989: The constitutions of the states of Mato Grosso and Sergipe are signed into law. They explicitly forbid discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. [PDFlink| [http://www.al.mt.gov.br/v2007/doc/constituicao_estadual_mt.pdf "Constitution of the State of Mato Grosso" (1989)] |1.71 KB] [DOClink| [http://www.mp.se.gov.br/Legislacao/Constituicao_Estado_Sergipe.doc "Constitution of the State of Sergipe" (1989)] ]

*1995: Congresswoman Marta Suplicy proposed Bill project No. 1151 concerning civil unions. The bill is pending approval in the House since 1995.

*1997: "G Magazine", the first gay-oriented pornographic magazine with large and national distribution, is published.

*2004: Rio Grande do Sul legalizes civil unions after a court decision in March. [ [http://noticias.terra.com.br/brasil/interna/0,,OI275352-EI306,00.html "Cartórios do RS aceitam registro de união gay"] . Terra. March 4, 2004.]

*2006: A male gay couple from Catanduva, São Paulo officially adopts a five year-old girl. [ [http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/cotidiano/ult95u128520.shtml "Justiça autoriza casal gay a adotar criança no interior de SP"] . Baptista, Renata. "Folha de S. Paulo". November 23, 2006.] According to "Folha de S. Paulo", a lesbian couple from Rio Grande do Sul was the first to achieve such right. [ [http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/cotidiano/ult95u128719.shtml "Erramos: Pela 1ª vez, Justiça autoriza casal gay a adotar criança no Brasil"] . "Folha de S. Paulo". November 28, 2006.]

*June 10, 2007: In its eleventh edition, the São Paulo Gay Pride Parade breaks its own record as the biggest parade in the world and attracts 3.5 million people. [ [http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/ilustrada/ult90u303251.shtml "Parada Gay bate recorde, dizem organizadores"] . "Folha de S. Paulo". June 10, 2007.]

*June 25, 2007-current: The Richarlyson affair in which a judge is brought before the Justice Council of São Paulo for stating in court that football is a "virile, masculine sport and not a homosexual one".

Anti-discrimination laws

The 1989 constitutions of the states of Mato Grosso and of Sergipe explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. As of 2003, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was prohibited in 73 municipal statutes, including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and three state constitutions.

As of 2007, an anti-discrimination law is currently pending approval on the Senate. Some conservative Catholic and protestant senators argue that the law would be an aggression on religious freedom granted by the Constitution. Senator Fátima Cleide (PT-RO) said that the law should be approved because "the country has the tragic mark that a homosexual is murdered each two days". Evangelical priest and senator Marcelo Crivella (PRB-RJ) criticizes the text, saying homosexuals will receive a protection that "should have been given to women, elder and children". [http://www.senado.gov.br/JORNAL/noticia.asp?codEditoria=2667&dataEdicaoVer=20070521&dataEdicaoAtual=20070523&nomeEditoria=Direitos+Humanos&codNoticia=58182]

Same-sex civil unions have been established at the state level in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. A court decision has been pending since 2005 on legalizing marriage nationwide.

Violence

In 2004, Grupo Gay da Bahia released a list with the names of 159 murdered members of the LGBT community in that year. [DOClink| [http://www.ggb.org.br/downloads/word003.doc "Murdered LGBT people in 2004". Grupo Gay da Bahia.] ] There is also a list with the names of people that allegedly suffered from human rights abuses in the same year. [DOClink| [http://www.ggb.org.br/downloads/word001.doc "Violação dos direitos humanos dos gays, lésbicas, travesti e transexuais no Brasil em 2004". Grupo Gay da Bahia.] ]

There are no official reports about hate crimes, but a research made in 2005 by the Latin American Center of Human Rights in Sexuality (Clam) found out that 65% of the homosexuals interviewed in that year's São Paulo Gay Pride Parade said that they were victims of hate speech and/or suffered physical aggression. [http://www.senado.gov.br/JORNAL/noticia.asp?codEditoria=2667&dataEdicaoVer=20070521&dataEdicaoAtual=20070523&nomeEditoria=Direitos+Humanos&codNoticia=58182]

In mid-2006, Brazil launched "Brazil Against Homophobia", a campaign against homophobia within the country including TV advertisement and billboards.

According to an article published in June 11, 2007 in BBC, activists estimates that between 1980 and 2006 some 2,680 gay people were murdered in Brazil, the majority thought to have been killed because of their sexuality. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6738905.stm "São Paulo holds Gay Pride parade". BBC.] ]

Adoption by same-sex couples

Two adoptions by gay couples are known, and one "provisional guardianship". The first adoption in Brazil by a same-sex couple was by a lesbian couple from Rio Grande do Sul. In November 2006, a male gay couple from the State of São Paulo adopted a five year old girl. In December 2006, a male gay couple also from the state of São Paulo have been granted the provisional guardianship of four children, all brothers and sisters. The judge of the case stated that it is likely that the guardianship will evolve into adoption. [http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/cotidiano/ult95u135309.shtml Story on the newspaper Folha de São Paulo pt icon]

Civil unions and same-sex marriage

See also

* Grupo Gay da Bahia
* Human rights in Brazil
* LGBT rights by country

Notes

References

* http://www.iglhrc.org/files/iglhrc/reports/990604-antidis.pdf "Antidiscrimination Legislation," "April 1999, A Worldwide Summary", International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Accessed January 8, 2006.
* [http://www.ggb.org.br/ggb-ingles.html What is the GGB] , Grupo Gay da Bahia, 2003 Accessed January 8, 2006.
* [http://www.ilga.info/Information/Legal_survey/americas/brazil.htm The International Lesbian and Gay Association World Legal Survey] July 31, 2000. Accessed January 6, 2006

Enlaces externos

* [http://www.losmejoresdestinos.com/destinos/rio_de_janeiro/rio_gay.htm Información Turística con fotos, videos, mapas, actividades, diversión, playas y hoteles de la movida gay de Río de Janeiro] [http://losmejoresdestinos.com Los Mejores Destinos de Viajes]
* [http://www.iglhrc.org/site/iglhrc/content.php?type=1&id=26 Felipa de Souza] Brazilian woman condemned for sodomy by the Inquisition in 1592
* [http://www.ggb.org.br/ggb-ingles.html Grupo Gay da Bahia, 2003]
* [http://www.iglhrc.org/files/iglhrc/reports/990604-antidis.pdf IGLHRC, 1999] )