Brazilian man with the words “stop killing us” written across his chest. Photo by Miguel Schincariol

Today, Brazil is seeing a steep increase in violence towards the LGBT community. With the rise of Brazilian Evangelical representation in Congress, anti-LGBT sentiments have transcended politics and have found their way to the streets. According to The Guardian, last year 445 Brazilians of the LGBT community were murdered, a 30% increase from 2016. This strong hatred towards the LGBT community can be linked to the ultra-conservative evangelical leaders in Brazil. Brazilian politicians often associate to the LGBT community with the devil. The Guardian article says that often times, these same politicians equate these people with animals. In September of 2017, a judge approved conversion therapy after a gay art exhibit had been removed by the government. Discrimination towards people with regards to their sexual orientation and gender is not illegal, and justice for people of the LGBT community is rarely ever restored.

Crosses that represent LGBT victims in Brazil. Photo by Elza Fiuza

Unfortunately, the rise of traditional conservatism and evangelicalism is not slowing down. In 2016, 54% identified as traditionally conservative up from 49% in 2010 according to an article by The Atlantic. Anthropologists link this rise in conservative sentiments to the increasing fear of violence in Brazil. According to the Atlantic, Brazilians are favoring capital punishment, life without parole, and lowering the age of juveniles to be tried as adults. People have turned to a stricter religion and the church for help. This shift towards the church has increased the number of evangelicals in Brazil from 6.6% in 1980 to 22.2% in 2010. In a violent war torn country, the people are confiding in Law and Order and punishment for those who do not obey traditional practices, leaving the LGBT community at the mercy of non-evangelical politicians.

Jair Messias Bolsonaro praying at a press conference. Photo by Apu Gomes.

Its important to talk about religion and those who use it as a means of “othering” people. Jair Messias Bolsonaro is one of the most conservative politicians in the larger Brazilian political arena. He has often made extremely homophobic remarks, saying he would rather have a “dead son than a gay son.” Despite backlash for his disgusting remarks, he has declared a run for the presidency in 2018. This related to class themes that talk about the “other” people. Since the Portuguese arrived to Brazil, the social construction of “othering” different people has only caused harm to those deemed as other. In Brazil, as homophobic sentiments are on the rise, a once LGBT welcoming Brazil has turned in the LGBT murder capital of the world. Religion is also associated with this theme of “othering.” Christianity and its influence on these politicians have played a key role in demonizing the LGBT community in Brazil again.

External Links to the articles used:

The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/22/brazil-lgbt-violence-deaths-all-time-high-new-research

The Atlantic – https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/01/the-evangelical-takeover-of-brazilian-politics/551423/

“Crosses” photo – http://www.humanosphere.org/human-rights/2017/05/un-calls-for-inquiry-into-anti-trans-violence-in-el-salvador/

“Stop Killing Us” photo – http://www.newsweek.com/pride-around-world-sao-paulo-lgbt-community-hosts-bigger-pride-parade-san-628004

We all like to make jokes about stories we hear being ‘fake news’ and poke fun at the politicians who debunk true stories about them as invalid, but the issues of the fake news phenomenon is much more serious than some people realize. A recent example is a story from a Portuguese tabloid that became famous in Brazil. The story surrounded popular Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar was getting funding to host a Kids T.V. show on Globo, that would cause the station to 50 million viewers. The story was debunked soon after its release, but had already become widespread across the internet through media sites like Facebook and shared over 110,000 times. Fake News Researcher Pablo Ortellado, a professor employed at the University at the University of Sao Paulo, argues the articles spread is due to the use of the messaging system WhatsApp.

http://mysterious-song-contest.wikia.com/wiki/Pabllo_Vittar

That’s a lot to take in at first, so let us dive into the Fake News aspect first. This wave of fake news is world wide issue, but Brazil has expressed some of the most concern. The article claims that in 2016 tabloid stories outperformed actual news, and that the National police are planning to punish those who create false articles. Our friend from Sao Paulo ties the growth of these articles to Facebook’s WhatsApp, “We have this new phenomenon of fake news sites specifically targeting WhatsApp — this is probably going to be a problem in the 2018 [national] elections,”. Unlike public social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, WhatsApp is private. It gives people the ability to ‘create echo-chambers’ of their own opinion. The article reports that the app is used by roughly 60% of the population, and solley used as a social media platform by 35% of its users.

There is a lot of political unrest in Brazil at the moment. It is broiling with political corruption, racial tension, and political polarization. From the University of Texas-Austin professor Rosental Alves brings discusses how WhatsApp is a breeding ground for more instability, “Families and every group you can imagine creates their own private social media network on WhatsApp, and those bubbles are totally out of the control of anybody else…”. Take the issue of echo chambers that was already mentioned into considerations. People who enter these species are looking for a specific voice and opinion that allains with their own, and articles that validate their opinions are going to be widespread in these chat rooms without any question to the articles validity.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323836504578553643435119434

The national police have already stated that it is prepared to release a statement that they would release a task force to suppress the app use. This response is heavy handed, but not entirely new. Brazilian judges have already banned the app on three separate occasions, and a Facebook official was briefly arrested in 2016 for similar charges. The Superior Electoral Court in Brazil has already decided that the military will not be involved in repressing the app, but the app will come under fire again soon as Brazil enters into one of its most politically charged elections.

Something that struck out to me in this article is the way Brazil is painted as a place of political turmoil, and military strength to the point where it can decide to suppress news articles. To me it seemed to play on the stereotype of the Latin American dictatorship. The article emphasized the military power Brazil holds over its population, and stressed the political tension in the country today. It compared the political tension and discourse of tabloid articles to that of the U.S., and how our 2016 election controversy is similar to the issues that Brazil faces today.

The most recent article that we read for class, “The Country of the Present, or Leaving the Future in the Past”, discusses the rapid growth and political stability of Brazil. This article paints a picture of Brazil that mirrors what this article reports. While what we read does nod toward the racial tension and inequality present in Brazil, it seems to be overshadowed by Brazil’s rapidly growing economy. Brazil now seems to have caught up to the world powers today and has come to face the same issues of political instability that they face.

Here’s the URL of the article with the sources it used,

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/mbpkyv/whatsapp-is-causing-a-serious-fake-news-problem-in-brazil

QueerMuseu Logo

Last August, the first major exhibition of queer art was shut down earlier than scheduled at the Santander Cultural in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The art exhibition was called Queermuseu or Queer Museum, and promoted gender and sexual diversity. Protests were initiated by a group called Movimento Brasil Livre (Free Brazil Movement), which is a right-wing group that was also responsible for the protests against former president Dilma Rousseff. The Free Brazil Movement accused the exhibit of promoting pedophilia, child pornography, bestiality, and blasphemy. Out of the 263 works by 85 different artists, the 3 pieces that evoked such a negative response include an image of the Virgin Mary carrying a baby monkey, altar bread with the words “vagina” and “tongue” written on them, and portraits of children with the words “transvestite” and “gay child” written on them. The Free Brasil Movement organized protests inside and outside of the museum, which included harassing museum patrons. Since Santander Cultural, a cultural center, is sponsored by the Santander Bank, the bank made the decision to close the exhibit early and came out with a statement apologizing for the exhibit and disapproving the content within the exhibit.

Felipe Scandelari’s “Last Resort” piece that produced backlash. Photo taken from NY Times.

“Gay Children” by Bia Leite. Photo taken from Freemuse.

However, backlash over the abrupt cancellation occurred as well. Specifically, the freedom of speech has been a concern among some Brazilians, especially since the new president (Michel Temer) came into power. In addition to the closure of this exhibition, there has also been other acts of censorship by the government regarding political film. The curator of the Queermuseum, Gaudêncio Fidelis, responded by comparing these actions to the censorship Brazil experienced under the military dictatorship from 1964-1985. Along with the curator of the Queermuseum, the district attorney and some major artists have condemned the closing of the exhibit, explaining that no pedophilia was observed in the art. Although protests and a petition has been signed by over 60,000 people, the Queermuseum has not been reopened, but the city of Belo Horizonte is interested in having the exhibit in their municipal museum.

Inside the Queermuseu. Photo taken from GoFundMe.

Protests against the closure of Queermuseu. Photo taken from The Conversation.

This article emphasized the importance of Christian values among Brazilians and how far right movements have advocated for these beliefs to influence politics. The article portrayed a negative depiction of the current Brazilian president, Michel Temer, for mixing his evangelical beliefs with politics and other questionable actions. However, this has produced backlash from other Brazilians, such as those from the LGBT, to the extent in which the democratic practices of Brazil is being questioned. The article also portrayed artists and musicians as being heavily involved in Brazilian politics, especially due to the government’s censorship of the arts.

Current president of Brazil, Michel Temer. Photo taken from Yahoo.

The importance of artists and musicians in Brazilian society was talked about in class last Thursday. Marina brought up the power of musicians when it comes to race and the documentary also touched upon this topic. Interestingly, the theme of celebrities playing a role in politics came up again in this article too, as the article emphasized the disapproval many celebrities had for the closure of the exhibit. Another recurring class theme this article presented is religion. The early readings we have had for class has focused on how Portuguese colonists brought Catholicism to Brazil and promoted it as the superior religion among indigenous people. The colonists were appalled by some of the natives’ actions, such as homosexuality and cannibalism, and viewed them as immoral (Seed, 96). Today homosexuality is not viewed to this extreme, but as evangelical beliefs are growing prominent in Brazil, opposition may be rising.

References

Seed, Patricia. American Pentimento the Invention of Indians and the Pursuit of Riches. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.