RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — 1000’s of revelers gathered alongside Copacabana seashore for Rio de Janeiro’s annual delight parade on Sunday, many scantily dressed and lined in glitter.
Rainbow-colored flags, towels and followers abounded among the many crowd principally made up of younger individuals who danced and sang alongside to music blaring from audio system.
Whereas the ambiance was festive, some spoke of the specter of violence LGBTQ+ individuals face in Brazil.
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“Because the sister of a trans lady, I’m scared to demise,” mentioned Helen Karajá, a 32-year-old bisexual artist.
At the least 230 LGBTQ+ Brazilians have been victims of violent deaths in 2023, based on the umbrella watchdog group Observatory of LGBTI+ deaths and violence in Brazil.
And extra trans individuals — 100 — have been murdered in Brazil final yr than in some other nation, based on Transgender Europe, a community of worldwide non-profits that tracks the information.
To make certain, life for homosexual individuals is safer now than it was, mentioned Carlos da Cunha, a 71-year-old hairdresser.
“Up to now, individuals needed to go to ghettos to satisfy individuals, since you couldn’t simply be wherever,” mentioned da Cunha. “Now, we will stroll down the road with out being attacked, with out being insulted or humiliated.”
One of many themes of this yr’s delight march was sustainability. “Environmental justice will solely be potential with racial and social justice, gender equality and sexual variety” learn one banner connected to a truck.
Brazil has confronted a collection of environmental catastrophes this yr, together with report drought within the Amazon rainforest, floods within the southern Rio Grande do Sul state, and wildfires throughout the nation.
“If we will’t respect the setting, how can we respect others?” mentioned Alexia Soutinho, a 23-year-old scholar who identifies as pansexual and lives within the Cidade de Deus favela.
