GLAAD CEO: “…we hope the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce will follow suit and withdraw their award for an elected leader who is targeting LGBTQ Brazilians for unequal treatment under the law.”

Associated Press: “Natural History Museum backs out of event honoring Brazilian president after pressure from GLAAD, others”

NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today hailed the American Museum of Natural History for canceling an upcoming event featuring Brazilian President and notorious anti-LGBTQ activist Jair Bolsonaro. The announcement came just hours after GLAAD joined environmental groups in calling on the Museum to revoke their invitation for the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce’s planned gala that would’ve honored Bolsonaro as its “Person of the Year” at the Museum. The Museum confirmed they canceled the event with an announcement on Twitter yesterday.

“The American Museum of Natural History has done the right thing by declining to host an event that features the anti-LGBTQ President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “His extremist voice has no place at one of New York City’s most beloved institutions. At GLAAD, we hope the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce will follow suit and withdraw their award for an elected leader who is targeting LGBTQ Brazilians for unequal treatment under the law.”

Brazilian President has a horrific and barbaric anti-LGBTQ record, and since his election last year, President Bolsonaro – like the Trump Administration – has systematically tried to erase LGBTQ families from the fabric of Brazil. Just recently, President Bolsonaro even praised the anti-LGBTQ efforts made by President Trump and his administration since taking office in 2017 – a total of 103 attacks on LGBTQ Americans overall.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Anti-LGBTQ History of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro

• Said he’d prefer his son die in an accident than be gay (Rough translation: “There are certain things that I say are as death. It would bring me disgust, would make me sad, and I even think that he, himself, would abandon me in that case. To me, it is death. And more: I’d rather he died in an accident than show up with some guy. To me, he really would have died.” Original interview, in Portuguese, can be found here: web.archive.org/web/20110709235317/http://playboy.abril.com.br/entretenimento/entrevista/jair-bolsonaro/
• Reiterated his preference for a dead son over a gay son: “I prefer, rather, a son run over by a convoy to a homosexual son. If my son were “gay,” he would be dead to me.”
• Supported a father who beat his 8-year-old son to death for showing effeminate traits, suggesting that beating the child would have prevented him from being gay.
• Has bragged that “if I see two men kissing on the street, I’m going to hit them.” 
• Said: “If a gay couple came to live in my building, my property will lose value. If they walk around holding hands, kissing, it will lose value! No one says that out of fear of being pinned as homophobe.”
• Claimed LGBT rights activists wants to recruit children for sex: “They want to reach our children in order to turn the children into gay adults to satisfy their sexuality in the future. So these are the fundamentalist homosexual groups that are trying to take over society.”
• Said being gay is a “behavioral issue” inspired by “liberal habits” “drugs” and “women also working,” adding that is a young person starts hanging out with certain people with a certain behavior, he’ll adopt that sort of behavior. He’ll think it’s normal”.lab.org.uk/ellen-page-confronts-jair-bolsonaro-about-homophobia-in-rio-de-janeiro/
• Referred to a rival political party as “a party of dicks and faggots”.
• Implied that President Dilma Rousseff is a lesbian, demanding that she “admit your love with homosexuals”
• Called Eleonora Menicucci, the Minister for Women’s Policy, “a big dyke”.
• Said he’d “rather have a son who is an addict than a son who is gay”.
• Said he does not have a gay child because his children are well educated.
• Insisted gay parents sexually abuse their children: “I make a connection between homosexuality and pedophilia because many of the children who will be adopted by “gay” couples will be abused by these homosexual couples.”
• Wanted to rid textbooks of homosexuality.
• Removed LGBTQ rights from human rights ministry considerations just hours after inauguration.
• Said: “If your son begins to act like this, sort of gay, he deserves a smack and he’ll change his behavior”.

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