More than three million people gathered in Sao Paulo this weekend to celebrate Brazilâs gay pride. Though this marks the nationâs eleventh such celebration, itâs the first year the stateâs officially sanctioned the parade. Tourism Minister, Marta Suplicy, told the press, âThis is the biggest parade on the planet. Our city is showing, once again, its respect for diversity.â
Certainly three million peopleâs something to shout about, but we find another number more intriguing: one million. Thatâs how many people who came out to see Pope Benedict when he toured the nation last month.
Benedict and his Catholic cronies, of course, arenât down with the dick diggers (or labia lovers, for that matter). The fact that more people want to celebrate gay pride than his Holinessâ world tour highlights homo power.
Yes, Brazilâs a densely populated nation and, as a Queerty friend pointed out, has a history of carnival culture, but itâs really saying something that more people care about gay pride than the pope.
Considering so many queers gathered in the worldâs most populous nation, one would expect a bit of violence. Unlike some recent prides, namely Russiaâs, there were no violent attacks or crimes, perhaps because the government rolled out about 900 coppers to quell anti-queer activists.
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Obviously Brazilâs come a long way in recent years, but as one marchers points out, thereâs still more work to be done. Sebastiao Pereira Rodrigues commented, âThere is no question the prejudice we have suffered for years has diminished a lot. But itâs still there and we still a long way to go.â Luckily Rodrigues and his ilk have lots of friends. Good thing, too.
The day before Pride, one million Evangelicals took to the streets to âMarch for Jesusâ. During said March they, what else, damned the gays. Hopefully the gays proved their point this weekendâŠ
Brazilâs gays stage massive parade [Independent]
Brazilâs Gay Pride Parade Draws Millions [Guardian]
The boys from Made in Brazil have some pictures from Prideâs massive Gira-Sol Party.
cjc
Come out, come out for Jesus….
Paul Raposo
“one million Evangelicals took to the streets to ‘March for Jesus'”
And no doubt the irony in the fact that Brazilian LGBTQ’s marched in the name of pride for love, while the religionists marched in the name of Jesus for hate, was lost on the Evangelicals.
nycstudman
I think China may have a few more people than Brazil đ
austex
I think he met most populous Catholic nation.
austex
I think he meant most populous Catholic nation.