Bolsonaro: Brazil can't become "gay tourism paradise"

[spastik00]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/26/bolsonaro-accused-of-inciting-hatred-with-gay-paradise-comment

 

Get Brazil out of your systems as fast as you can, guys.  This creep truly hates us.  

[SolaceSoul]

3 hours ago, spastik00 said:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/26/bolsonaro-accused-of-inciting-hatred-with-gay-paradise-comment

 

Get Brazil out of your systems as fast as you can, guys.  This creep truly hates us.  

As opposed to all those warm and fuzzy LGBTQ protections we get from the current creeps in The White House and his supporters? In case you haven’t noticed, anti-LGBTQ rights and protections are being stripped in the USA under the Trump administration, and violence against LGBTQ has skyrocketed.

AND in the USA, there are no saunas, prostitution is illegal, and there’s a nationwide obesity epidemic and opioid / meth crises.

[likeohmygod]

Nothing new here... Bolsonaro hates us.

It will remain one of his dreams, since gay sex tourism is an essential huge source of income for the country, and especially for already bankrupt cities like RJ.

In the end something like Orlando in the US, still has to happen in Brazil, even low scale.

Edited April 26, 2019 by likeohmygod

[pauleiro]

I totally agree with Bolsonaro here.

Brazil can't BECOME gay tourism paradise. it IS already gay tourism paradise. :-))

[brockmiller]

He is quite late on that assertion!!!

[CaliPexx]

Bolsonaro simply reeks of homophobia -- not that we didn't know that already. After saying: "O Brasil não pode ser país do mundo gay" ("Brazil cannot be the country of the gay world"), Bozo goes on to throw out this welcome mat to men who have sex with women: "Se quiser vir fazer sexo com mulher, fique à vontade" ("If you want to have sex with women [here in Brazil], go for it"). We, as gay and bisexual men, along with our heterosexual supporters, are particularly offended by Bozo's comments yesterday to the effect that LGBT visitors are no longer welcome in Brazil, ostensibly to avoid Brazil becoming a "gay tourist paradise".

Additionally, like many statements Bozo makes, his remarks are idiotic in that, as several of you have already pointed out, his rantings serve to shut down a segment of the tourist industry that includes many potential tourists with substantial disposable incomes, something Brazil could use right now in its struggle to escape economic stagnation. These comments are particularly ironic, coming as they do not long after Bolsonaro eliminated the tourist visa requirement for citizens of Japan, Canada, and the U.S. with the stated goal of increasing foreign tourism to Brazil.

More importantly, many of us believe that President Bolsonaro's comments will serve as a license to incite violence against LGBT people, both Brazilians and foreigners. Already one openly gay Brazilian congressman who has fought with Bolsonaro over the years, Jean Wyllys, felt compelled to resign his seat in the Chamber of Deputies and to go into exile because of credible death threats he received following Bolsonaro's election and inauguration.

While we probably shouldn't overreact to this news, it's important for those of us who are visiting Brazil now and for the remainder of Bozo's 4-year presidential term to remain vigilant by keeping apprised of the daily news from Brazil. This forum represents an excellent place for us to communicate with each other and to share information about any real or perceived threats to members of the LGBT and other minority communities.

[Riobard]

Be patient.

A demographically aging population hemorrhaging out social security funds at one of the highest proportions of spending budget and GNP globally, desperately ambitious pension reform already widely criticized and expected to impose greater financial hardship for workers, legislation delaying retirement age in a nation with marked health multimorbidity onset at late middle age similar to more thriving and resourced countries, grim economic 2-year forecasts capping off a near decade of minimal growth, crumbling infrastructure. 

Who will be scapegoated when it is obvious the prospects of Brazil being pulled out of the fire do not rest on the election promises of a populist bag bolsa of hot air? 

[CaliPexx]

46 minutes ago, Riobard said:

Who will be scapegoated when it is obvious the prospects of Brazil being pulled out of the fire do not rest on the election promises of a populist bag bolsa of hot air? 

From President Bolsonaro's past utterances, he has a number of potential scapegoat targets from which to choose: (1) the PT (Workers' Party, which opposed him in the general election); (2) PSOL (the party of openly gay and now exiled deputy Jean Wyllys); (3) "Communists", Bozo's bogeymen who hardly exist in today's Brazil; (4) victims of the military dictatorship; (5) black Brazilians; (6) native Brazilians; (7) Northeast Brazilians; (8) immigrants; (9) women; and, of course, (10) LGBT people. Did I forget any other group of people defamed by Bozo during the course of his political career?

[Riobard]

Good points, but I am thinking the rabble might be inclined to eventually converge and consolidate their discontent by directing it to one defined figurehead.

You have the sophistication and advanced cognitive processing to track his use of two full hands of finger-pointing and to organize and hold in mind this complex list of whipping-boy categories.

The masses under stress, in contrast, would tend to be depleted in capacity for relaxed yet detailed mental effort and be inclined to streamline blame. Perhaps my own psychological laziness supports this fantasy of him getting his just dues in due time. 

[Johnatan41]

He makes such declarations for his electorate but do these declarations have really an impact on reality ? I have doubts

[wncdemcub]

4 hours ago, Johnatan41 said:

He makes such declarations for his electorate but do these declarations have really an impact on reality ? I have doubts

When people are desperate and see the mirage they’ll drink the sand.

[pauleiro]

One of the risk is that a militant or a gang of extremists, pushed by Bolso's comments decide to attack some gay targets as happened in Budapest a few years ago when Victor Orban was exciting hungarians to react to immigrants, jews and faggots. The action below happened in 2008 while Orban became Prime Minister of Hungary in 2010, position he still holds now. 

 

In recent years, homophobic attacks have increased in Hungary, for example during the Budapest Pride Marches (Renkin, 2009, p. 20). Additionally, in 2017, the US-based anti-LGBTQ group International Organisation of the Family (IOF) was invited by Hungary’s conservative right-wing president Viktor Orbán to hold its big annual gathering in Budapest. This year, the theme was Building Family-Friendly Nations: Making Families Strong Again. This article argues that Orbán’s position on the LGBTQ community is part of his anti-Enlightenment nationalism, which creates the right circumstances for anti-LGBTQ groups to flourish and stir homophobic violence in Hungary ... As a result, Orbán’s anti-Enlightenment nationalism stirs homophobic violence and creates a ‘safe haven’ for anti-LGBTQ groups in Hungary.

 

ACTION BAR set on fire 

Gay rights activists in Hungary have spoken of their concerns about extreme right-wing violence in the country after a gay bar in the capital Budapest was set on fire with a petrol bomb.

The bar, called Action, was attacked yesterday.

In a chilling reminder of a tactic sometimes used by terrorist groups, a telephone warning, allowing the bar to be evacuated.

Just after the basement bar was cleared, a petrol bomb exploded – it is unclear from reports whether it was thrown – and the foyer was destroyed in the fire.

Activists said it could be the work of a group who use a website called kuruc.info.

Described as “an extremist nationalist hate site targeted against gay people, liberals, Jewish people,” the phone numbers and other details about gay activists are regularly posted on the site.

“This site, although Hungarian, is hosted in a US server, so there is nothing we can do to stop them,” a Hungarian activist from Budapest told PinkNews.co.uk this morning.

“Yesterday this site put out an address list of all the gay bars in Budapest, the first in the list being Action. Later that night, it was set on fire.”

The chief of police in Budapest has said he is anticipating disruptions to this year’s Pride march on July 5th.

Last year at Budapest Pride, a gang of ultra-nationalists, skinheads and fascists attacked marchers along the 7km (4.3 mile) route.

 

Pride organisers said that the police had failed to take appropriate action:

“Contrary to a number of reports and the statement of the Interior Ministry, items capable of causing grievous bodily harm were thrown at the marchers: beer bottles, smoke bombs and molotov cocktails,” they said.

“The counter-demonstrators continuously shouted: “faggots into the Danube, followed by the Jews,” “soap factory” and “filthy faggots.””

After last night’s arson attack on a gay venue, there is concern that fascist and nationalist extremists are planning more violence against the city’s gay community.

[asdsrfr]

Amazing that a lot of gay people still voted for this guy. Unfortunately that shows how desperate Brazilians are for a change of some sort.

[sydneyboy1]

58 minutes ago, asdsrfr said:

Amazing that a lot of gay people still voted for this guy. Unfortunately that shows how desperate Brazilians are for a change of some sort.

I don’t  wish to be interpreted as defending this appalling character but you have raised an interesting point. I recall an article where a number of people were interviewed as to why they voted for him. One was a gay small businessman. Although he despised his homophobic attitude the level of lawlessness in Brazil was getting so out of hand that this gay man said (in his words) that for the moment at least staying alive was more important than his sex life and the “new order” promised change.

Edited April 29, 2019 by sydneyboy1

[CaliPexx]

41 minutes ago, sydneyboy1 said:

I don’t  wish to be interpreted as defending this appalling character but you have raised an interesting point. I recall an article where a number of people were interviewed as to why they voted for him. One was a gay small businessman. Although he despised his homophobic attitude the level of lawlessness in Brazil was getting so out of hand that this gay man said (in his words) that for the moment at least staying alive was more important than his sex life and the “new order” promised change.

An acquaintance who has studied the Holocaust has explained to me that there were Jews in Germany who supported the ascent of Hitler, who promised to bring stability after a period of economic turmoil. Sadly, we all know the end of that story.

President Bolsonaro's popularity has apparently plummeted as he is concentrating on social engineering rather than bread-and-butter issues, down from 49% saying he was doing a "good or great job" just after his 1/1/19 inauguration ["honeymoon effect", methinks] to 35% in the latest polls. Just this week, he sacked the advertising director of Bank of Brazil (an entity of the Brazilian government) for airing a TV ad about diversity, which included racial minorities, young people with decorative rings, and transgender people, which he personally found to be distasteful.

Quote

About 27 percent of those surveyed found the government doing a “bad” or “terrible” job, pollster Ibope said in the survey commissioned by industry group CNI. That’s up from 24 percent in an Ibope survey in March and from 11 percent in January. The government’s “good/great” rating was 35 percent, little changed from 34 percent in March, but down from 49 percent in January. The Bolsonaro government approval rating is the lowest for the early months of any previous Brazilian president elected since democratic rule was restored in 1985. CNI polling director Renato da Fonseca said many Brazilians had voted for Bolsonaro to prevent the leftist Workers Party from returning to power, but that he had not been able to convince them his government was heading in the right direction. “The economy is not moving. Growth has not returned as some of them probably expected would happen with Bolsonaro elected, and they are disappointed,” Fonseca told reporters. Analysts supported those views.

The reasons people voted for Jair Bolsonaro had to do with (1) the threat criminal activity poses to living day-to-day in Brazil; (2) corruption, which permeates every level of Brazilian society, affecting both democratic norms and economic advancement; and (3) the morbid Brazilian economy, with high unemployment and stagnant growth rates. Bozo has had just over 100 days in office and hasn't performed well thus far on any of those parameters, in the eyes of Brazilians. It seems that people are seeing what he is trying to do, i.e., avoiding the real concerns of the people by falling back on social "hot-button" issues, including his attacks on LGBT people. As early as it may be, it seems that Bozo's short-lived honeymoon is already over.

[sydneyboy1]

I repeat I am certainly not defending this appalling character. He is a classic demigod with simplistic solutions to complex problems and a resort to scapegoats. History is replete with his ilk and the United States currently has a President who superbly encapsulates this phenomena. 

[CaliPexx]

13 hours ago, sydneyboy1 said:

I repeat I am certainly not defending this appalling character. He is a classic demigod with simplistic solutions to complex problems and a resort to scapegoats. History is replete with his ilk and the United States currently has a President who superbly encapsulates this phenomena. 

I agree with your observation about both Presidents. In today's issue of The Rio Times, the correspondent presents an interesting hypothesis for last week's "Brazil won't become a gay paradise" rant and the hissy-fit President Bolsonaro had about the Bank of Brazil diversity ad: The writer postulates that Bolsonaro was trying to divert attention from some terrible economic news that was revealed the same day but that got relegated to the back pages due to the furor created by Bozo's hateful remarks. Not surprisingly, diversion is the same tactic that Trump pulls when the news of the day is not to his liking.

[CaliPexx]

From the Wednesday 1 May 2019 issue of The Rio Times: Anti-Gay Comments: Big Sponsors are Cutting Ties With Event Honoring Bolsonaro

[pauleiro]

Financial Times

Financial Times pulls out of gala honouring Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro

Corporate boycott of New York event grows after campaign by LGBT rights activists

Jim Waterson media editor and Tom Phillips Latin American correspondent

Thu 2 May 2019 

The Financial Times has pulled its involvement in an event honouring Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, after a campaign by LGBT rights activists against the celebration of the self-declared homophobe.

The recently elected South American leader is due to be honoured at the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce’s person of the year gala dinner, which is scheduled to take place in New York later this month.

The FT is one of several prominent sponsors and partners of the event, including the management consultancy Bain & Company and Delta Airlines, who have pulled their involvement after pressure from the campaigning organisation GLAAD.

A spokesperson for the the newspaper confirmed it would no longer be a media partner for the ceremony to honouring Bolsonaro, but added it intended to “maintain a partnership with the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce” on other events.

The growing boycott leaves the dozens of remaining British and American sponsors in a tricky position, as they have to choose between their desire to match public statements of support for LGBT rights with their desire to do business in one of the world’s most important emerging economies.

Many multinationals, including banks such as Morgan Stanley, Santander, and HSBC, remain listed as sponsors of the event, which was originally due to be held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York but had to change venue after protests.

US museum of natural history will not host Bolsonaro gala event after outrage.

The debate surrounding the event has echoes of the corporate boycott of Brunei-owned hotels which came about after protests against laws criminalising LGBT people under threat of the death penalty, and has shown how placing pressure on corporations to live up to their public statements on diversity can cause them to pull their accounts.

The gala boycott also underlines the damage done to Brazil’s international reputation by Bolsonaro, a populist known for his hostility to human rights, LGBT people and the environment.

Last week he said he wanted to stop Brazil being a “gay tourism paradise”.

“If you want to come here and have sex with a woman, go for your life,” Bolsonaro reportedly told journalists. “But we can’t let this place become known as a gay tourism paradise. Brazilcan’t be a country of the gay world, of gay tourism. We have families.”

He has previously said he would rather his son died than be gay and that same-sex couples living in an apartment block can cause house prices to fall.

Bolsonaro has managed to become “almost a pariah”, according to a former Brazilian ambassador to the US. “People see him as a dangerous man,” Rubens Ricupero told the Guardian.

In the 21st century, a country’s international image was based largely on issues such as tolerance, human rights, respect for the environment and equality, Ricupero said. “And in all of these areas the current Brazilian government has odious positions. This will have serious consequences, even in terms of the economy and trade.”

Sarah Kate Ellis, the chief executive of GLAAD, said her organisation would continue to campaign against businesses associated with the gala to honour Bolsonaro.

“It’s imperative that the companies and organisations associated with this event understand the egregious anti-LGBTQ record and rhetoric of the Brazilian president and stand by LGBTQ people in Brazil and everywhere by withdrawing their support. His brand of anti-LGBTQ activism is actively harming LGBTQ Brazilians and companies that host or participate in this celebration of him need to take a stand,” she said.

[pauleiro]