With 2016 Olympics, Maybe Now Brazil Can Improve LGBT Rights Record

by Michael Jones · 2009-10-05 05:59:00 UTC
Topics:

Brazil

Brazil -- and specifically Rio De Janeiro -- was awarded the 2016 Olympics last week, a rebuff to Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid. While here in the States the decision to stage the first Olympics ever in South America was used for a few cheap political punches against President Obama, down in Brazil folks were celebrating like crazy.

It's a great thing that South America gets its first Olympics. It will be an even better thing if Brazil, which has been crowned the "homophobic champion" of the region due to high rates of anti-LGBT violence, manages to get its ship in order so that by 2016, Brazil isn't known for hate crimes.

In 2008, an LGBT person was murdered every two days because of their sexual orientation. Why such a high rate of violence? Some experts point to gross disparities in income. But others point out that impunity ranks high in Brazil for anti-LGBT violence, meaning that perpetrators of hate crimes are rarely brought to justice. The Brazilian group Grupo Gay da Bahia even went so far as to call the anti-LGBT violence phenomenon in Brazil a "homocaust," noting that since 1980, nearly 3,000 people in Brazil have been killed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Now, with the world's eyes about to fall on Brazil, will added pressure from the international community help Brazil clean up its image? As this NPR article notes, Brazil lives and breathes sports. Here's hoping that within the next seven years -- if not the more immediate future -- Brazil can start to breathe more acceptance toward LGBT folks, too.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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