With around 3 million participants, Sao Paulo’s gay-pride parade is one of the biggest in the world. Maybe someone was feeling left out.
The council of the Brazilian city has approved legislation to establish Heterosexual Pride Day on the third Sunday of December each year. It still needs to be signed by Mayor Gilberto Kassab to become law, and he has said that he is studying the bill.
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The legislation’s author, councilman Carlos Apolinario, said Heterosexual Pride Day is “not anti-gay but a protest against the privileges the gay community enjoys.” One of these privileges, he said, is their right to hold a parade down Paulista Avenue while the March for Jesus, another large-scale walk, is barred from using the main thoroughfare.
But he also said his push for the event is not really about parades — he doesn’t want one for Heterosexual Pride Day — but is to “raise awareness and encourage the public to safeguard the morals and good customs.”
The Brazilian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Association said through a statement that the bill implies that heterosexuality is morally superior and will lead to attacks against LGBT citizens. “The celebration of heterosexual pride is inappropriate because it belittles the just cause of the LGBT community,” the statement said. “Unlike homosexuals, heterosexuals are not discriminated against simply for being heterosexuals.” (via AP)
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