I write this text under strong emotion and deep pain. This pain has a name: grief. Data from the Gay Group of Bahia, collected from news reports from the police sections of the most varied Brazilian media, says that in the first half of 2011, 126 lives were lost, victims of homophobia.
The number is scary! 126 people had their dreams, their projects, their lives ripped away from them. 126 bereaved families: mothers, fathers, siblings who suffer the absence of their family members.
"A cry was heard in Ramah, weeping, [crying] and great lamentation; it was Rachel weeping for her children and inconsolable because they are no more." (Matthew 2.18)
Homophobia does not only plague LGBT people. The entire society suffers from this illness, this cancer. Proof of this is the sad episode that happened in the interior of São Paulo with a father and his son, who hugged each other, were mistaken for a gay couple and were therefore beaten by a group of homophobic patients. The father had his ear cut off!
What saddens me most is knowing that a petty and misguided discourse is circulating out there, which can even be heard in the mouths of LGBT people: "we can't stand talking about homophobia any longer", "something these people did to get themselves killed", "This speech about homophobia is a step backwards", etc.
The crime of homophobia is always marked with cruelty, a lot of cruelty. The marks on the bodies of the victims attest and it is a shame that our very shallow sensitivity does not tolerate the viewing of images of these bodies, perhaps then we would talk less nonsense and become aware once and for all of the urgency of the issue.
What is happening around PLC 122/06 should cause outrage and bring thousands of people to the streets, not for an unseasonable stunt, but for a political outcry. In recent years, LGBT activists have fought to put homophobia on the country's agenda and fought to equate homophobia with the crime of racism. We are informed that there is the intention of a new bill, in the debate phase with senator Marta Suplicy, the presidency of ABGLT and the senators of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front. PLC 122/06, which in Senator Marta's words is "demonized", would be abandoned, archived and a replacement would be constructed in dialogue with fundamentalist leaders.
In recent years, what I have seen most are mistakes surrounding the PLC, strategic errors, jingoism, idiotic certainties and a lot of lies. From both sides. Dialogue with fundamentalist evangelicals was already important years ago and although many pointed this out back then, myself included, we were completely ignored. The same "cantinella" was always sung (The State is secular!) and meanwhile the Fundamentalist Evangelical Parliamentary Front grew, the evangelical population grew, the leaders of this social segment became richer, increasingly present in the media and, finally, they managed to win the minds and hearts of the people of Brazil against PLC 122. Strong political allies such as Iara Bernardes and Fátima Cleide suffered defeats at the polls because of this flag.
The "strategy" of LGBT activists to ignore religious fundamentalism was a shot in the foot. What's new? We always underestimate our enemies, don't we? Unfortunately for us.
Today we find ourselves at this point: PLC 122/06 will certainly be archived or defeated in the plenary of the National Congress (I prefer it to be defeated! The archiving should not have the approval of the LGBT population!) and a new project will be prepared in dialogue with the fundamentalist evangelical parliamentarians; this one will be the winner. It turns out that this project will be innocuous, far below what we wanted and I will not be able to bear hearing the cries of activists around this circus, wanting our support and mobilization. You don't take care of your house after it's been broken into, you take care of it first and there's no point using the issue of dialogue and alliances now, because we're not idiots. This should have happened way back when, period!
The scenery is too bad! I ask that we not remain silent! I don't want a semblance of a law and I don't think you want that either. We need to say this to Senator Marta and the president of ABGLT. We cannot support the filing of PLC 122/06. We have to take a stand and they need to listen to us. They cannot build a new project without our effective participation, without listening to us, without the broad support of the movement and LGBT people. They don't have that carte blanche. ABGLT does not represent the entire LGBT population in Brazil. There are other voices and you have to listen to us!
Book launch "Chronicles of a Gay Pastor"
Dear readers: this Saturday, July 23rd, the 15st MERCOSUR LGBT Business Fair will take place in São Paulo, at FECOMERCIO. I'll be there, at the Metanoia publisher's stand, launching my book "Chronicles of a Gay Pastor", starting at XNUMX pm. I look forward to everyone's presence.
* Márcio Retamero, 37 years old, is a theologian and historian, with a master's degree in Modern History from UFF/Niterói. He is pastor of the Bethel Community / ICM RJ and the Presbyterian Church of Praia de Botafogo. He is the author of "The Banquet of the Excluded" and "Can the Bible Include?", both published by Editora Metanoia. Email: marcio.retamero@gmail.com.
