Following a campaign centered on anti-LGBT+ sentiments, newly installed President Jair Bolsonaro instructed Brazil’s human rights ministry to no longer consider issues of LGBT+ equality on his first day in office.
Tarah Demant, Director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Identity Program at Amnesty International USA warned of attacks to come. “Bolsonaro is doing to LGBT people what Trump is trying to do to trans people – to write them out of existence. Their idea is if the Government says you do not exist, or you are not worthy of certain rights, then nobody has to worry about that,” said Demant.
While activists remain uncertain of Bolsonaro’s specific legislative intentions, politically motivated violence towards LGBT+ people has already been seen, and a rush of same-sex marriages reveals widespread fear of an impending loss of rights.
Read more at The Daily Beast.