Sad, wounded, upset and tired, that’s how many people are feeling after finding out that Jair Bolsonaro was elected Brazil’s 38th president. Now people ask me how and why it happened. The reasons are numerous, such as dissatisfaction with the traditional political system, scandals of corruption, fake news, and especially the disbelief in the leftist parties. I will not be a hypocrite trying to cover the situation, many things were wrong, the situation in Brazil was far from perfect. But the only way to change is not totalitarianism, but dialogue.
I understand that Brazil is just another nation that opted for the nuclear option in the polls, but in the United States and the United Kingdom, we are seeing that this only brings uncertainties and retrogression in many areas, especially in the social sphere. For a place that already suffers with extreme violence and intolerance like Brazil, this is even more dangerous. When the country with the fifth highest female murder rate is also the country with the largest number of LGBT+ victims of murder are in the position of electing a president that says to a congresswoman, “I wouldn’t rape you because you do not deserve it”, or even (I believe that among the international media his most infamous quote) saying that “he wouldn’t be able to love a gay son” it’s hardly a surprise, but it says that things need to change ASAP!
I could write long paragraphs about the horrors and the truculence there, even talk about the politically motivated murders of: Marielle Franco, Moa do Katende, Laysa Fortuna, Priscila and Kharoline. But I don’t think it would honour their memories, it would only perpetuate the circle of pain and violence. Instead I want to highlight that each one of these amazing individuals left us all a love legacy and we’ll honour their efforts and fight for more tolerance.
After the initial shock, I’m now seeing that many things that were missing among the “leftist” are showing up again: union, resistance, critical thinking…pretty much everything that was lying dormant in the last couple of years is woke up now. That is great, it will give an opportunity to all those opposing the newly instituted fascism to organize the ideas and synchronize initiatives. Since Sunday the amount of love was overwhelming specially compared with the other side, while many of Bolsonaro’s supporters sung and danced holding firearms, spilling hate, those contraries were peacefully resisting , protecting each other and creating safety nets.
We are starting to make ourselves and our cause visible to the world, and it’s with tears in my eyes that I write that many people from all over the world are ready to fight for our right to be who we are. “No fear, we will resist”
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