Brazil: same-sex couples rush to the altar ahead of Bolsonaro inauguration

Source: Guardian


Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right politician who will be the country’s next president, has called himself a ‘proud homophobe’

Anna Jean Kaiser in São Paulo
@annajkaiser
Thu 13 Dec 2018 02.30 EST

On the night of the Brazilian election, Bianca Gama cried as it became clear that the country’s next president would be Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right politician whose career has been marked by homophobia.

As the official result was announced, Gama’s girlfriend Priscilla Cicconi turned to her and said: “You were right. We should get married – before he takes office. Let’s do it.”

Gama and Cicconi were not the only ones to make such a decision: faced with a homophobic president-elect with close alliances to evangelical and Catholic churches, LGBT people in Brazil are rushing to claim hard-earned rights such as marriage equality and name and gender changes.

One notary association said that so far this year there had been a 25% increase in same-sex marriages in Brazil, and a 42% increase in São Paulo, the country’s largest city, compared to last year.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/12/brazil-same-sex-marriage-increase-bolsonaro