The merchant Bill Santos – one of the politicians who was part of the Vote LGBT movement in the last elections – was elected on Sunday (29) managing councilor of Parque Ibirapuera, in São Paulo.
With 19 candidates for the position, Bill came in second place with 14% of the votes, occupying one of the four available positions. During the voting, several personalities, such as Heloísa Alves, Silvetty Montilla, Dário Neto, DJ Pomba, Yurin Bernacci, Luís Arruda among others, were present.
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According to Bill, when reactionary groups learned of his candidacy for the council, they campaigned for other candidates. "They even brought a lot of people to vote, something that never happened before. But we still managed to defeat them and their candidate didn't join the council."
In an interview with A CAPA, Bill states that he will pay attention to issues that past managers already discuss – such as cleaning, security – but above all pay attention to issues of relevance to the LGBT community. "It's important for us to occupy these spaces so that we can also bring forward our demands, which are often forgotten."
AUTORAMA AND DRAG SHOWS
The priority, according to him, is to talk to try to reopen the Autorama, which was closed in 2013. "We understand that it is a place for LGBT socialization. I worked there for seven years, selling pizza, and I realized how important the space was for people who were discovering themselves and families who understood good coexistence between LGBT people".
When responding to the justification that the place was closed due to prostitution and drug sales, Bill argues: "Of course there are some issues that need to be discussed, but they all exist in the city as a whole, it is not exclusive to Autorama If the solution was to close, the whole city should be closed."
Bill's other actions aim at safety, awareness campaigns to respect diversity, as well as cultural actions with LGBT people. “Why don’t we bring drag queen shows to this space?” he asks.
