Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil in October 2018 and took office in January 2019. Since then, the Ministry of Women, Family, and Human Rights has chosen to remove the legal protection status of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) people. Some politicians are now pushing for a ban on discussing gender diversity and sexual orientation in schools.
Bathroom laws pertaining to which toilet facilities trans people are allowed to use, bills defining what constitutes a family, same-sex marriage, and laws enabling trans people to change their legal name are also seen to be under threat.
Brazil has been described as having the highest LGBTQ murder rate in the world—167 trans people were reported murdered between October 1, 2017, and September 30, 2018. During last year’s election campaign, a number of LGBT hate crimes were reported in the press.
It is no wonder that many Brazilian LGBTQ people are worried they are becoming isolated from the rest of the world. Marielle Franco—a young left-wing politician who took a strong stance against police violence—was murdered in Rio de Janeiro in March 2018.
