Hundreds of thousands of people took to downtown São Paulo on Sunday for the city’s annual LGBT Pride parade, many of them dazzling in green and yellow as part of a campaign to “reclaim” the colors of Brazil’s flag appropriated by the political right.
A huge rainbow flag covered the facade of the São Paulo Museum of Art to welcome revelers into a festive atmosphere of vibrant music and extravagant costumes, with banners proclaiming: “All ways of loving, all ways of being.”
For Eugénio dos Santos, one of those dressed in yellow and green, participating in the event – one of the biggest in the world – is “fighting for visibility, against violence, saying that we exist and are citizens with all the rights and duties” this implies.
Almost 20 million Brazilians, around 10% of the population, identify as LGBTQ+, according to the Brazilian association ABGLT.
Parade participants called for their issues to be addressed by candidates for October’s local elections.
The decision came just days after the far-right and evangelical parties in Congress managed to approve a ban on the use of public money to promote or finance measures that oppose the values of the “traditional family”, such as abortion or breast surgery. gender change for minors.
Organizers of this year’s event asked participants to dress in yellow and green as a form of protest against far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters, who usurped the national colors during his government.
Homophobic crimes have been punishable under Brazilian legislation since 2019, but attacks against gays and transsexuals are recorded daily.
Rights groups say 145 trans people have been killed in the country in 2023.
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