Hundreds of thousands of people took over downtown Sao Paulo on Sunday for the city’s annual Pride parade, many dazzling in green and yellow as part of a campaign to reclaim the Brazilian flag colors appropriated by the political right.
A huge rainbow flag covered the facade of the Sao Paulo Art Museum to welcome revelers to a festive atmosphere of stirring music and extravagant costumes, with banners proclaiming: “All forms of loving, all forms of being.”
For Eugenio dos Santos, one of those taking part in the event in yellow and green – one of the largest in the world – is “fighting for visibility, against violence, saying that we exist and are citizens with all rights and duties.” that entails.
According to the Brazilian association ABGLT, almost 20 million Brazilians, about 10 percent of the population, identify as LGBTQ+.
Parade participants called for their issues to be raised by candidates in October’s municipal elections.
It came just days after far-right and evangelical parties in Congress succeeded in passing a ban on the use of public money to promote or finance measures that go against “traditional family values,” such as abortion or gender reassignment surgery for minors.
Organizers of this year’s event had called on participants to dress in yellow and green as a form of protest against far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters, who appropriated the national colors during his rule.
Homophobic crimes have been punishable under Brazilian law since 2019, but aggression against homosexuals and transsexuals is registered daily.
According to rights groups, 145 transgender people have been murdered in the country in 2023.
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