This Thursday morning (17), students from Mackenzie University, in São Paulo, made an intervention against homophobia during the reading of the institution's Charter of Principles. The letter had already been published on the university's website and called for "the right to criticize lifestyles that do not follow Christian standards."
Sheila de Carvalho is a Mackenzie student and was present at the event. According to the student, everything happened in “the greatest tranquility”. She says that the group's idea was to read a manifesto, but it was not possible, as the request had to be made beforehand. Therefore, the group waited for Chancellor Augustus Nicodemus to speak before intervening.
The student says she asked the chancellor two questions. "I asked him what the situation would be like with academic work that did not follow the thinking of the Presbyterian Institute, and he replied that the institute values student freedom", reports Sheila, who then told Nicodemus an episode where a professor referred to to homeless people and homosexuals in the center as "human trash", asking him what the university's attitude would be towards this.
Nicodemus told the student that the university would investigate the case and that other situations like the one reported by the student would not be tolerated. Despite the chancellor's words, Sheila told the website's report The Cape that nothing "will happen in practice". "They [the institution's management] will continue with their homophobic stance", believes the student.
