Brazil president defends same-sex unions

by rahul | September 18, 2008 at 07:00 pm | 307 views | 5 comments | 0 recommendations
 © AP
2008-09-18 23:23:00 -  BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - Brazil's president has come out in favor of same-sex unions. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says that in Brazil, «there are men living with men, and women living with women» who «build a good life together.» But a proposed law that would give all same-sex couples rights equal to those enjoyed by married heterosexuals has been stalled in Brazil's Congress for more than a decade.  Silva said in an interview aired late Wednesday night by the government-run TV Brasil that politicians who oppose same-sex unions and yet seek the votes of gay men and women during elections are «hypocrites. 
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Luiz Castro

Lula has a good side, no questions about!

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rahul

Sure, Lula is not an old fashion right wing leader nor an Opus Dei member! No wonder, there is such aperture to sexual diversity now that Brazil enjoys a pro social leaning democracy. But as the story of the picture of the embracing guys showed,  such open sexuality policy does not enter into the Brazilian military yet.  Readers may take a peep at Openly gay Brazilian soldier arrested.

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Luiz Castro

In this case Lula has my support. Would be a nice theme for an article a report on Gay Rights over countries like Cuba, Iran and Venezuela, don't you think?

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rahul

You are most welcome to indulge in such enterprise. However, those countries have not claimed to have a  tolerant view on sexual diversity but do otherwise in practice at the Military...just like in the States wiht the "Don´t ask, don´t tell". Brzil seems to be closer to the American policy in this particular point.

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Luiz Castro

I will let three small contribuitions for readers to check out how homossexuals are "handled" in those countries:

In Iran they are executed:

Iranian human rights campaigners estimate that 4,000 gay men have been executed since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

Video here

In Venezuela they are struggling to survive:

The struggle for gay, lesbian, and transgender rights within the Bolivarian Revolution is one of the more difficult struggles

In Cuba they are in concentration camps:

Nothing prevents a homosexual from professing revolutionary ideology and, consequently, exhibiting a correct political position… And yet we would never come to believe that a homosexual could embody the conditions and requirements of conduct that would enable us to consider him a true Revolutionary, a true Communist militant. A deviation of that nature clashes with the concept of what a militant Communist must be.

Thus, in their revolutionary zest, Castro's regime erected reeducation camps, where dissidents, religious leaders and gays were to be cleansed of their "anti-social behavior" and trained to serve the revolution. In 2006, while discussing the controversial camps, Castro acknowledged their existence, but refused to align them with the "supposed persecution of homosexuals." The “Military Units to Support Production,” he said, "were not internment units, nor were their punishment units. On the contrary, it was about morale, to give them a chance to work and help the country in those difficult circumstances.” Though the camps have since been abolished, the Revolution's quest for integration remains the same, albeit with some timely adjustments.

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September 18, 2008 at 07:00 pm by rahul, 307 views, 5 comments

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