Far-right, homophobic Jair Bolsonaro has been elected as Brazil’s president
The far-right politician has made countless homophobic comments
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
The far-right, homophobic leader of Brazil’s Social Liberal Party, Jair Bolsonaro has been elected as Brazil’s new president.
In the election over the weekend, Bolsonaro beat Workers Party candidate Fernando Haddad 55 per cent to 45 per cent of the votes.
In the past, Bolsonaro made numerous homophobic and racist comments and has been described as Brazil’s Donald Trump.
During an interview with TIME magazine last month, Bolsonaro stood by a previous statement in which he claimed he would attack two men if he saw them kissing in the street.
Back in 2015, Bolsonaro said that blood transfusion patients should be allowed to reject blood if it came from a gay person and during a 2011 interview with Playboy, Bolsonaro said he’d be incapable of loving a gay son and would prefer that son to “die in an accident”.
This year has seen more than 300 LGBT people murdered despite same-sex marriage being legalised in 2013.
But Bolsonaro has claimed that “there is no homophobic behaviour in Brazil” and said: “Those who die, 90 percent of homosexual deaths, they die in drug-related situations, prostitution, or even killed by their own partners.
Like many anti-LGBTI politicians in Australia, Bolsonaro has taken issue with sex education programs in schools mentioning that LGBTI people exist, frequently suggested that such programs were designed to turn children gay.
“I went into battle with the gays because the government proposed anti-homophobia classes for the junior grades, but that would actively stimulate homosexuality in children from six years old.”
Bolsonaro has compared himself to US President Donald Trump, and spent part of his campaign live-streaming from a hospital bed after being stabbed in a failed assassination attempt.