“I am gay. And I am proud of that,” said Governor Eduardo Leite of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state. “I have nothing to hide. I’m proud to talk about my sexual orientation and who I am — even though that should be a non-issue in our country,” he said, breaking a barrier no other acting governor has ever done.
Mr. Leite, 36, is the youngest governor in office in Brazil — and he plans to run for the presidential nomination of his center-right Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). After his coming out, he said he wanted to get ahead of any whisper campaigns that would try to turn his sexuality into a political liability.
“I’m a governor who is gay. Not a gay man who is governor,” he said, comparing himself to Barack Obama, who broke racial barriers to become the first black president of the U.S. in 2008. And while the comparison must come with many caveats, it is hard to understate Mr. Leite’s courage to come out, in a country in which almost 250 LGBTI+ people were killed last year and where discrimination against gays remains still common.
As we explained in our Brazil Daily newsletter on Friday, Mr. Leite’s coming out — just as he is trying to enter national politics — could be important for LGBT+ representation, especially in a country that elected a self-proclaimed “proud homophobe” in Jair Bolsonaro.
There are few openly LGBT+ elected officials in Brazil — only three Congresspeople are...
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