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see: Also see: 1 Baby taken away from Brazilian gay couple 1/08 2 Rio's governor requests civil union rights for homosexual couples 3/08 3 Brazil opens condom factory to help preserve the Amazon rain forest 4/08 4 Brazil takes movie inspiration for condom campaign 4/08 5 Brazil launches hot site for gay travellers 5/08 6 Brazillian Prez Supports Gay Equality 6/08 7 Mixed messages on Brazilian gay rights 8/08 8 Brazil's President backs same-sex unions 9/08 11th January 2008 1 by PinkNews.co.uk staff writer "I've been through three psychological evaluations successfully. I have my own home, I've been with my partner for six years and I have a job," Roberta told O Globo . "But for others that isn't 'normal' and I'm not capable of taking care of a baby. That's prejudice, there is no other explanation. But I'm not going to give up. I want my son back." In an interview with the Diario de S.Paulo newspaper, the official, Cláudio Santos de Moraes, said he was not being homophobic when he fought for the couple to lose custody of the baby. According to him, if a situation is 'unusual', then it is 'abnormal'. "I'm not discriminating," he said. "I simply understand that this child has the right to a conventional family, with a mother that is a woman and a father that is a man. I don't think it is correct to give custody to that transsexual man." The baby had been under Roberta's care for 8 months. However Moraes said he didn't want to feel "guilty" if the child didn't like his parents in the future. "If it's an abnormal situation then I don't see why we would take the risk. The child cannot be a scientific experiment to see if things turn out well," he said. "If that child has the chance to live with a normal family, why should we put it in a situation that might bring it future consequences?"
March 3, 2008 2 by Sun Yunlong The governor also asked the STF to validate administrative decisions made by the state government that gave homosexuals equal civil union rights and to suspend lawsuits and court decisions against them.
April 8, 2008 3 Sao Paulo, Brazil (AP)- Brazil on Monday inaugurated a condom factory that officials say will help hundreds of poor Brazilian rubber tappers make a living while helping to preserve the Amazon rain forest. The plant in the northwestern town of Xapuri will produce 100 million condoms a year, which the government will distribute for free as part of its massive anti-AIDS program, Brazil's Health Ministry said in a statement. The latex will be drawn from towering jungle trees in the sprawling Chico Mendes forest reserve by small time rubber tappers who protect their trees and thus the rain forest to ensure their livelihood, the Health Ministry said in a statement. The reserves is named after renowned rubber tapper Chico Mendes who drew international attention to Amazon rain forest destruction. Mendes was shot dead in his home in Xapuri in December 1988 by cattle ranchers. Rubber tappers in the northwestern state of Acre, where the factory is based, already produce about 6.2 million tons of latex a year, but demand from the factory will boost that amount by about 500,000 tons annually, the ministry said. The factory will benefit at least 500 families of rubber tappers and will provide about 150 jobs for the town of 15,000, the ministry said. Brazil currently imports almost all of the condoms despite having large amounts of latex in the Amazon. Officials see factory as a way to provide rubber tappers and local residents with an economic stake in preserving the rain forest.
April 16, 2008 4 by Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk The director of the National Programme of HIV and AIDS, Mariangela Simao, said: "These groups are more susceptible to HIV infection." A survey of sexual attitudes and behaviour from 2004 is the source of the figures quoted by the Brazilian Health Ministry. Other stats show that MSM aged between 13 and 24 in the country made up 24% of people with AIDS in 1996, but 41% on 2006. The figures jumped from 26% to 37% in the same time period among 25 to 29-year-olds. The posters were inspired by the advertising for the Hollywood film American Beauty. In Britain the Department of Health had a similar idea in February as part of their "Condom: Essential Wear" Valentine's campaign. Pop star Alesha posed in a bath filled with (unopened) condoms. The Brazilian government is to distribute half a million leaflets and 100,000 posters about how to use condoms and information about STDs, including HIV, in gay bars and health access points. Julio Moreira, head of HIV prevention programmes at gay health group Rainbow, told InterPress Service that gay men are 18 times more likely to be infected with HIV. "With the availability of the anti-retroviral AIDS drug cocktails and the longer survival of people with AIDS, the new generation have not seen their friends die and haven't experienced the pain of the loss of someone very close, so they have become careless about using condoms," he said. But the Rio de Janerio government's STD and AIDS prevention programmes director Alexandre Chieppe, said: "Actually, the trend toward more AIDS cases in the young gay population is generally the same as is seen among heterosexual men of the same generation. Among the general population, the AIDS epidemic is stabilising, but cases are still increasing among young men in general and, within that group, gays." Homophobia has been blamed for the lack of previous campaigns targeted at gay men and the trans population.
7 May 2008 5 A new travel site - theloveland.net - offering tourist information, cultural programs and packages has been launched with the aim of encouraging travellers to visit Brazil for the São Paulo Gay Pride Parade. With contents in English, the site - theloveland.net has been launched with information about the São Paulo Gay Pride Parade, which happens on May 25. The objective is to promote Brazil as friendly destination for the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender) public and to motivate foreign tourists visiting the event to see other destinations in the Country. On the site there is information about the simultaneous cultural programs to the event, links for tourist packages suggested by Brazilian Association of GLS Tourism, ringtones, downloads of pictures of the favorite Brazilian destinations for these tourists and related links. The site launched for the first time last year and received a great response from the international public. The choice of the Loveland name refers to the respect that Brazil offers visitors from all over the world, regardless of their sexual identity. “We intend to show a multicultural Brazil, which welcomes and respects diversity. And we take advantage of the São Paulo Gay Pride Parade to invite foreign tourists to know other cities and areas of our Country”, explains Embratur’s president Jeanine Pires. The São Paulo Gay Pride Parade is considered the largest parade in the world of its kind, and last year attracted more than 3.5 million people - about 37% of those being visitors from other cities and countries.
June 11, 2008 6 by Killan Melloy | EDGE New York The president, who exhorted his countrymen to embrace tolerance, was quoted by the LifeSiteNews.com article as saying he would be “going to do all that is possible so that the criminalization of homophobia and the civil union may be approved.” Lula also referred to homophobia as “the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head,” the article said.
August 21, 2008 7 by Jamie Skey Southern Rio Grande do Sul state has permitted same-sex civil unions since 2004, and a Sao Paulo state court allowed a gay couple to adopt a 5-year-old girl in late 2006. The current adoption bill now returns to Brazil's Senate for further debate. This may come as a surprise to many as four out of five candidates running for mayor of the important Brazilian city of Salvador committed their support for gay rights in answers to a questionnaire from gay groups, A Tarde reports. No previous mayor of the city, which is capital of the eastern Brazilian state of Bahia, has pushed through gay rights measures or appointed openly gay city officials. In the area of education, all four backed age-appropriate sex education with positive discussion of homosexuality and the human rights of GLBT people, as well as stocking municipal libraries with books with accurate scientific and literary information about homosexuality.
September 19, 2008 8 by Tony Grew The President, universally known as Lula, attacked opponents of gay rights. "One thing that amazes me is why politicians who are against do not refuse their votes, why Brazil does not refuse their income tax. The important thing is for them to be Brazilian citizens, for them to be committed to the nation. I support the civil union." He said that Congress was working on the issue. Homosexuality has been legal in Brazil since 1823 and civil unions are allowed in some areas.= However, homophobia and gay-bashing remain significant problems in the country of 184 million people. In June Lula became the first nation leader to launch a conference with the sole purpose of promoting gay equality, where he announced his support for gay rights, and stated he will "do all that is possible so that the criminalisation of homophobia and the civil union may be approved." A proposal granting same-sex couples the same rights as married heterosexuals has stalled in Brazil's Congress for more than 10 years, prompting some states to take their own action. Southern Rio Grande do Sul state has permitted same-sex civil unions since 2004, and a Sao Paulo state court allowed a gay couple to adopt a 5-year-old girl in late 2006. Rio de Janerio grants the same benefits to the same-sex partners of state employees. The country's Constitution refers to marriage as between a man and a woman, and marriage is a federal issue, though states may choose to recognise civil unions or other de facto same-sex relationships. A series of court rulings have given gay and lesbian couples some rights in areas such as immigration, welfare, pensions and inheritance. |
