ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2012

And this is the context where we find also the Brazilian LGBT community, as it has not
obtained an institutional recognition of its existence by the Brazilian government nor any
political-administrative recognition of its basic needs. There is no federal law dealing with
recognition of civil rights (civil marriage, registration change of the social name and gender
designation) or even legal protection against violence, discrimination and prejudice on the
grounds of gender identity and sexual orientation ( criminalization of homophobia).
The little existing legislation in states and municipalities is restricted to administrative
procedures, since family law and criminal law are of the exclusive competence of the
National Congress, which passes federal laws. By way of example, a bill criminalizing
homophobia in the same way racism is already criminalized has been pending in the
National Congress for more than 10 years. In late 2011 a group of parliamentarians from the
governing coalition presented a different bill in its place, which reduced the severity of the
crime of homophobia, making it less important and with less severe penalties than racism. This
attempt to mitigate the fight against homophobia was not successful and received much
criticism both from conservative groups and from social movement organizations, both
opposed to any concession on this issue.
The institution that has, occasionally, recognized rights of gays and lesbians is the judiciary, in
some regional courts. Recently also the highest Brazilian court, the Federal Supreme Court,
acknowledged that the union between two persons of the same sex can be considered a
family unit – it is the first, to this day, institutional, juridical demonstration of recognition of
lesbian and gay rights in the State of Brazil. The effect of the decision is binding and has
immediate application.
However, public policies in defense and in favour of LGBT people are neither sufficient nor
effective in reducing homophobic violence, which includes murders of gays and lesbians,
moral violence and prejudice in the workplace and in the media. Brazil has no public
institution nor specific project counting the occurrences of homophobic crimes and violence,
be it physical or symbolic.
The only survey in the country is the initiative of the social movement, the Gay Group of Bahia
- GGB, which counts the crime news items published in media and social networks. In 2011,
according to a survey of the GGB, there was a homophobic murder every two days in Brazil.
The inertia and indifference of the Brazilian government when it comes to counting
homophobic crimes, contrary to what is done instead with surveys of car thefts and armed
robberies of banks, hinder the adoption of concrete measures to fight homophobia and
keep the discussion on the topic off the government agenda.
Consequently, public security and judicial police are not employed for the investigation and
prosecution of criminal offenses, providing a culture of impunity, discrimination and
homophobia for crimes involving LGBT victims.
Another major obstacle to recognition and enjoyment of human rights by gays and lesbians is
the religious dogmatism, which is currently gaining more and more ground in the control of
mass media such as radio and television networks. The religious dogmatism arising from the
neo-Pentecostal and the Protestant churches, and the charismatic segment of the Catholic
Church, incites and legitimizes actions of intolerance.
Among the parliamentary majority supporting the current federal government,
representatives of these churches and religious denominations exert a negative influence on
government decisions to the detriment and prejudice of LGBT people. For example, last year
a project developed and funded by the federal government to educate students and train
teachers in public schools on tackling homophobia (the anti-homophobia kit), was
inexplicably vetoed by the president on the eve of its launch, after she had received a group
of evangelical MPs of her majority demanding the suspension of the project.
State-Sponsored Homophobia – May 2012
ILGA – The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association - www.ilga.org
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