World
View: Brazil
This year, with music blaring from more than
20 sound trucks, hundreds of thousands of people danced and
marched through Sao Paulo Sunday, June 2, in what was billed
Latin America's biggest gay pride parade. Organizers attributed
the huge turnout to the presence of heterosexuals who sympathize
with the gay rights movement.
BUT, Brazil is still the World Champion in the
murder of homosexuals. Every 3 days a gay man,
transvestite or lesbian is brutally murdered in Brazil.
Brazil's Hate Crime Murders Number 132 in 2001
One hundred thirty-two Brazilian gays, lesbians and
transgendered people were murdered in anti-gay hate crimes in
2001, the Grupo Gay da Bahia [GGB] reported April 24.
"When compared with the homophobic crimes documented in 25 other
countries, Brazil gets put in first place, followed by Mexico,
with a yearly average of 35 homicides of homosexuals, and the
United States, with a yearly average of 25," said GGB President
Luiz Mott, author of the report and a professor of anthropology
at the Federal University of Bahia.
Eighty-eight of the victims were gay men, 41 were transgendered
people and three were lesbians.
"Brazil is the world champion in murders of homosexuals,
having registered between the years 1980 and 2001 a total of
2,092 such murders -- an average of 104 deaths per year,"
Mott said.
In 2001, the most murders occurred in São Paulo state (24)
followed by Pernambuco (16), Bahia (14) and the Federal District
(11).
According to the report: "The crimes against homosexuals
occurred above all in capital [cities], being concentrated on
Friday and Sunday nights, with gays being murdered most of the
time by being stabbed inside their own homes, and transvestites
being victims of firearms, in the streets. Seventy-two percent
of the victims were Afro-descendents (mulattos or blacks). The
youngest victim was 14 years old and the oldest 68. Most of the
homicides occurred in the 18-30 years age group and in
practically all socioeconomic levels ... predominantly among
professionals, sex workers, business owners, teachers [and]
hairdressers."
What About Brazil -- For
Women?
According to GGB's statistics, only 2% of
these attacks are on lesbians, but Love Sees No Borders
believes this number is grossly underestimated for two main
reasons. First, a vast percentage of homophobia-related crimes
go unreported. Even in the United States, most hate crimes are
not reported. The city of San Francisco, considered by many as a
gay Mecca, has one of the highest percentages of hate crimes in
the U.S. Very likely this is because people feel comfortable
enough to come forward with their complaints knowing they will
not be discriminated against by institutions and law enforcement
officials--after all, a large majority of hate crimes in Brazil
are committed by police officers--therefore, elevating the
number of people unwilling to denounce a crime. Second, in
women's cases brutality against lesbians very likely takes the
form of violent rape. If a victim is brave enough to come
forward, the complaint will be rape, not a hate crime against a
lesbian. In addition to this, Brazilian police are notorious for
underestimating women's complaints. The city of Sao Paulo had to
create a separate police entity known as the Delegacia da
Mulher, or Women's Police Department, to deal with crimes
against women because it is a well known fact in Brazil that
police officers are unable to deal with crimes against women. In
many cases, these same police officers who are taking complaints
from women commit the same atrocities on their wives and
daughters at home. As a matter of fact,
until 1991 husbands could kill wives in Brasil in what are
so-called "honor killings." Famous politician
Paulo Maluf was quoted as telling men that if they had
sexual urges to go ahead and "rape, but don't kill." Recently,
law "enforcers" are
prosecuting kidnappers with more tenacity than rapists, even
though, unlike rapes, most of the kidnapping cases in Brazil are
not violent. Women as a whole are not respected in Brazil and
are constant victims of despicable crimes. These two factors
have to be taken into account when estimating hate crimes
against lesbians in Brazil, since when it comes to lesbians we
experience under-reporting and an overlap between hate crimes
and crimes against women.
Brazil is a country of opposites when it comes
to gay issues. Several courts have granted gay and lesbians
partners benefits such as inheritance and pension rights. This
kind of recognition is unheard of in the U.S. Yet gays and
lesbians, as well as transsexuals, do not live inside
courtrooms. We are people, and as such we live in the towns,
cities and villages of a country. In this world outside of
courtrooms, life is very different, and Brazilian society is not
welcoming to gay people. Gay, lesbian and transsexual Brazilians
cannot even count on fair treatment by Brazilian police. For
instance, in 1998,
Brazilian policemen were suspected of killing a transvestite,
and another
transvestite was murdered in 1995. (In the Brazilian media,
the terms "transsexual" and "transvestite" are interchangeable,
with "transvestite" used more commonly.) The perception that
effeminate men suffer the brunt of persecution, while lesbians
escape the radar of hate is a misconception. A couple of out
lesbians were tortured and humiliated by police officers
based on no other evidence than a false accusation. None of the
officers involved were ever charged or prosecuted in any way.
Besides the police, society is not at all
welcoming of gays, lesbians and transgendered people. In Sao
Paulo, considered the most cosmopolitan city in Brazil along
with Rio de Janeiro,
citizens tried to stop the Gay Pride Parade. Brazil has one
of the most active and growing movements of skinheads, a white
supremacist and homophobic group. They were responsible for
the most brutal and public death of a gay man in downtown Sao
Paulo where at least 30 skinheads were involved. Only two
have been indicted.
Adding insult to injury, in 1999 mail bombs
were sent to a Sao Paulo gay organization. After investigating
the events, it was found that an employee of Amnesty
International, a human rights watchdog, was responsible for the
mail bombings. To read about the story published in Portuguese
in a major Brazilian newspaper, click
here.
As you can see, Brazil is not a safe country
for gays, lesbians, bisexuals or transsexuals. These are just a
few cases that mirror the hundreds of thousands of unreported
cases. The land of soccer, carnaval and caipirinha can also be a
land of bloody hatred and murder if you happen to be a member of
the LGBT community.
Most of the information used to generate this
page came from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights
Campaign (www.iglrhc.org),
and the Grupo Gay da Bahia (www.ggb.org.br).
™
