Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has dropped his latest anti-LGBTQ bomb.
Bolsonaro told reporters at a breakfast meeting: “If you want to come here and have sex with a woman, go for your life. But we can't let this place become known as a gay tourism paradise. Brazil can't be a country of the gay world, of gay tourism. We have families.”
LGBTQ advocates immediately blasted the remarks.
Federal Deputy David Miranda said: “This is not a head of state – this is a national disgrace. He is staining the image of our country in every imaginable way.”
Tweeted activist Renan Quinalha: “Bolsonaro's statement on gay family and tourism is disastrous for human rights and the international image of Brazil. It authorizes the already alarming violence against LGBTs, by not recognizing other forms of families that are now guaranteed by FTS decisions”
In March, Bolsonaro tweeted a video of two men on a platform performing a public sex act as a response to criticism of his administration during this year's Carnival. Bolsonaro also plans to eliminate all LGBTQ content from schools. And his government has wasted no time resurrecting bills banning gay marriage.
Bolsonaro recently stood next to Donald Trump at the White House and said the U.S. and Brazil stood “side by side” to reject LGBTQ rights.
Said Bolsonaro (via translator) at the Trump meeting: “In conclusion, may I say that Brazil and the United States stand side-by-side in their efforts to ensure liberties and respect the traditional family lifestyles and respect to God, our creator, against the gender ideology and the politically correct attitudes and against fake news.”
Jean Wyllys, the gay congressman who recently fled the country because of death threats, blasted Bolsonaro in a video posted to Twitter: “With this unhappy declaration and this unhappy gesture against the LGBT community, Bolsonaro is simply being Bolsonaro.”
