Part 9: Brazil and Venezuela
Is it truly part 9 already???? Gosh. Time flies so fast.
I am not able to do the other two essays tonight, so please take my messy notes and some links instead.
Anyway, next update will be Thursday! This project takes Wednesdays off.
Word count is like, 495-ish
-Soul
Brazil
Brazil is largely progressive in its laws. Homosexuality has been legal since 1830, gay marriage since 2013. As of 2018, it is possible to legally change your gender without medical procedures. In addition, as of 2021, every state but two have recognized a third gender. All but six of them, however, only allow it for intersex people.
Pride celebrations have existed in Brazil since 1997, and São Paolo, the first and longest running of them, is the largest pride celebration in the world with over 3 million people. When it began, it only had 2000 people, but it steadily grew until it reached the 3 million mark. Each São Paolo event has a new slogan and theme. These themes are about current LGBT+ politics, rights, or discrimination. The Pride parade is the largest and last official event of São Paolo pride. That is not to say there aren’t things to do afterwards. Many clubs do stay open after pride after all. Prior to the parade, there are events like the craft fair, and drag shows.
Even with all of this, their record breaking pride, the laws, trans people still face extreme violence in Brazil. In fact, Brazil has had the highest number of trans murders for fourteen years. While they have tried to stop this with laws and regulations, political speeches and more, 2022 had 131 trans people murdered. Of the victims in 2022, 76 percent were black, trans-women making up a large amount of that. On top of that, this is only reported murders.
Statistical links: 1 2 3 4
Notable murders: 1 2
Pride information: 1 2 3
History: 1 2
Other important links: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Venezuela
When you research LGBT+ people in Venezuela, a thing you’re going to run into again and again is the illegality of being gay in the military. So let’s start with that.
In Venezuela, until March of this year, it was illegal to be gay in the armed forces. It was easy, in fact, to be thrown out or fired, even if you had previously been a model worker. The Venezuelan military justice code had banned “unnatural acts”, punishable by up to three years in prison. Formal armed service members spoke out about this, in an article you can find here. Good news for gays in Venezuela, however, as on March 16th of this year, the code was annulled. Former members removed because of that code have had messages sent to them letting them know they can be reinstated.
That does not mean things are great for queers in Venezuela, however. A trans-women in Caracas has talked about her experiences being out, and what it took to get there. She talked about how her family had been unsupportive of her transitioning, but reportedly are coming around to it. In the article she talks about how she is privileged to be able to walk around without suffering transphobia every day. She talks about her friends who have had to leave the country, or suffer abuse, or are unable to present properly. Venezuela also has a misogyny problem, and according to her, it affects her more than transphobia does.
Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6
French Guiana
ALTLinks for Guiana: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Paraguay
ALTLinks for Paraguay: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Part 8<–>Part 10
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