The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) addressed this Wednesday (3) the crimes of homophobia and transphobia, during a debate at the Human Rights and Minorities Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, in Brasília.
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Among the approaches was the equalization or incorporation of the LGBTphobic crime in Law 7.716/1989, which talks about punishment against racial discrimination. In other words, homophobia becomes a non-bailable and imprescriptible crime.
The federal prosecutor for Citizen's Rights, Aurelio Veiga Rios (photo below), defended – as did the Attorney General of the Republic previously, Rodrigo Janot – the importance of using the Racism Law in the prosecution of crimes of discrimination motivated by gender identity or sexual orientation.
According to him, the constitutional norm repudiates all types of discrimination, regardless of whether it is against sexual, religious or color orientation. And he paid attention to the large number of cases of racism filed, due to the lack of specific standards to interpret such crimes. "Crimes end in agreements such as offering basic food baskets."
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the deputy Erika Kokay (picture above) declared that it is necessary to classify homophobia as a crime, along the same lines as racism. "I cannot say that racism deserves a serious criminal classification – being imprescriptible and non-bailable – and homophobia deserves another treatment, as if it were a less serious crime. They are crimes with the same DNA", he stated.
According to Erika, there was a major setback in the fight for freedom after the growth of the "ruralist group and fundamentalist discourse". "The first step to changing this situation is to criminalize homophobia and create a culture in favor of freedom of sexual expression."
