SAO PAULO, Brazil — The city council of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Wednesday passed a measure approving a Heterosexual Pride Day to be celebrated on the third Sunday of each December.
A spokesperson for the city’s mayor, Gilberto Kassab, whose signature is required for the legislative proposal to become law, declined comment other than to offer that the mayor was studying the measure.
The author of the legislation, city alderman Carlos Apolinario, told reporters that his idea for a Heterosexual Pride Day is “not anti-gay, but a protest against the privileges the gay community enjoys.”
Apolinaro has a long record of opposing LGBTQ equality rights, claiming that he is not homophobic, but concerned that the Brazilian LGBTQ community was being offered special legal protections beyond what he considers appropriate for all Brazilian citizens.
As the debate over LGBTQ equality rights continues to rage in Brazil, the alderman recently remarked:
“The law must be equal for everyone, but we have seen for a while now is a deification of the gays, because the newspapers almost every day brings some matter on them, the government is concerned to discuss the matter up in schools, with children and adolescents, distributing booklets and videos.
“The impression is that the most important issue in the press, the courts, in Congress is the issue of so-called gay rights, the rights plan is treated with almost a dozen rights for gays.
“Not blacks, who are part of our history, have the same space in the media. The government also does not show any concern to combat racism in schools telling the story of blacks and their importance to our country
“In addition, we have many kinds of prejudice to be fought. What’s more, those who claim to defend gay rights, privileges actually argue as if the gay was a special category of people who are above the law.
Last June, in an opinion piece written for the Sao Paulo newspaper, Folha de Sao Paulo, Apolinaro wrote:
“The Federal Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression. We can criticize divorce between heterosexual unions, businessmen, politicians, Catholics, evangelicals, priests and pastors, but if we speak against the thought of gays, we are considered homophobic and threatening, even with processes.
“Punishing someone for expressing dissenting opinion is typical of dictatorships. I’m convinced that we are living in a dictatorship gay, because in a democracy, anyone can disagree.”
via: Grupo Gay da BahiaCarlos Apolinario
The alderman is particularly incensed that the city’s massive Gay Pride Parade
is staged on one of Sao Paulo’s main thoroughfares, Avenida Paulista, while the annual “March For Jesus,” organized by evangelical groups, have routinely been denied permits and permission to use the same route.
“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. I respect the gay and lesbian, because as a Christian, I learned the meaning and value of free will, but I disagree with the exclusivity that the government gives the gay community.
“These situations [gay pride] make homosexuals a special category of people. The way things are going, soon someone will present a project in Sao Paulo turning it into the gay capital of the country.”
The Brazilian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Association 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,” the association said in a statement.
“The celebration of heterosexual pride is inappropriate because it belittles the just cause of the LGBT community,” the statement added. “Unlike homosexuals, heterosexuals are not discriminated against simply for being heterosexuals.”
In a recent report, the gay rights group Grupo Gay da Bahia said 260 gays were murdered last year in Brazil, up 113 percent from five years earlier.
Filed under: South America
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Just give us our crumbs in the corner and let us be…
Bruno’s trolling in Brazil now?
isn’t every day straight pride day?
I’m not going to read the article…I don’t support people wanting something because they’re being ignorant about someone else getting it. I do, however, support all of us having pride for who we are, whether that’s being gay, straight, black, white, asian, green, pagan, christian, whatever.
I’m all for this on principle. It would be interesting to see how they’d assert their orientation beyond what we see on a daily basis. What would be different? What would they wear?
We’re the privileged ones? They are the privileged ones. They have never been persecuted or made to feel ashamed for their sexual orientation. And without former shame, how can you have pride?
Gays will!!!! :P
Maybe it would be one long wedding procession of viagra virgins in white of course, handed over one-by-one by creepy old men to fat ex-jocks eating hot dogs, listening to Dave Matthews, holding remote controls trying to find the mute button when the women speak. What a great parade that would be… zzzzzzzzz
Lol well it’s only fair, there’s black pride, Mexican pride, gay pride. Why not have a straight pride haha, having it doesn’t phase me. I’d probably go too, just for the heck of it.
Pfft. Fine. Go ahead and waste money. I don’t give a shit.
bahaha ha we’re priveleged uh no not really not as much as straight alumni are
This…is ridiculous. We celebrate gay pride because of all the hardships we have been through, all the persecution, all of the hate, all of the death, just because we are something you refuse to tolerate, even though your “God” says to love all human beings, and to forgive any sin. Way to go you guys, can’t wait to see you in hell.
‘straight pride’ = extremist Christian oppression
“Straight Pride” is Not Okay for the same reason that the KKK’s “White Pride” is Not Okay. You catch my drift?
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. ~Dr. Seuss
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cant we all just celebrate life?! BE HAPPY PEOPLE!!! live and let live.. fuck…
What is it that straight people should be proud of? What has been their battle? What system did they have to fight so to be recognized by society?
@パク・ キャン・ア I get where you’re coming from, in theory. But the age old debate of silencing once group to protect another isn’t the only way. If they had this silly parade, it it most certainly would backfire.
Example: I recall a ‘white power’ march in Manhattan in 1998 (or 99?) with 200 or so neonazi idiots from upstate. They were welcomed happily by a few thousand fearless (mostly) black and latino boys who showed up to mock them. They just laughed at the pathetic marchers and tossed stuff at them as they marched. It was magical and bizarre. They were the laughing stock of the city and slithered away in minutes, never to try it again. We let them have their ‘voice’ and they got their democratic response. No need for silencing when the dogma dialog stops on its own.
Sometimes we must take a different stance to test the waters, say “FakKK you” to oppressors and just stop being victims needing protection all the time. The more we assert that group power – in all situations outside our comfort zone- the more power we claim for ourselves.
I would wager that straight pride would be seen as a tragic lost cause of puny fearful little men – with bad hair. They would not dare return for a second year.
everyday is straight pride day. These types are so annoying.
“straight pride” — right, because being part of an unjust, entitled majority is something to be so proud of.
You know what? I have straight pride. I’m STRAIGHT, and I’m damn PROUD that I have been blessed with such an open, unbigoted mind (in spite of some of the manners in which I was raised) that I can PROUDLY stand up against hate and inequality. Piss on chach bag homophobes.
Just to clarify, I wasn’t intending to come off as tooting my own horn. I’m just so sick and tired of these ignorant, uber-conservative knob stains shitting on what is supposed to make this country great: life, liberty, and THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
Erase the hate. One love <3
Straight pride?? Sorry but when u have things like teen mom, secret life, Sarah Palin, and George w. Bush, U lose more pride and dignity
Will white.people soon want to have a white pride parade?
Are straight people not privileged enough as it is. No straight boy had to come out to his parents, he will never be rejected for being caught kissing the girl-next-door. He doesn’t have to hide who he is. He can discover who he is in the spotlight, while being encouraged by his family and friends. He isn’t told he chose to be that way, or that he is somehow going to Hell. Having a pride parade is a celebration for those who have overcome this type of discrimination and a beacon of hope for those who have not yet began their journey.
Doesnt this idiot know pride month is for EVERYONE!?! Not just gay people. He is an idiot through and through.
privileged? since when?
Straight Pride Celebration?! Don’t they have that already…IT’S Carnivale! Nothing but a bunch of drunk guys groping scantily clad women. Now, that’s Straight Pride! Can’t you feel the warmth?
I’m a little hetrophobic but I’ll march with my friends and their vag floats maybe one day we can pray away the straight
I’m a straight Brazilian girl and I think this is just ridiculous. Like, really? Why do we, straight people, need a ‘pride day’??? We have no rights to fight for! We don’t NEED a straight pride day! I’m glad Rio didn’t follow São Paulo’s, hmm, decision.