RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Homosexuals Celebrate Victories

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 14 2002 (IPS) - The 90 groups that make up the gay rights movement in Brazil are celebrating several recent triumphs that marked progress towards recognition of the rights of same-sex domestic partnerships.

The highest profile case involved rock star Cassia Eller, who died on Dec 29 in Rio de Janeiro, leaving behind an eight-year-old son, Francisco Ribeiro Eller.

In a controversial decision, juvenile court Judge Leonardo Castro Gomes awarded custody of the boy on Jan 8 to María Eugenia Vieira, the singer’s partner for the past 14 years.

The case set a new precedent in Brazil as the first time a court recognised the right of a homosexual’s partner to custody over their child, including the administration of the assets inherited by the minor. But the sentence is pending appeal, and will be either upheld or overturned in the next few months.

Although Brazilian law does not recognise same-sex marriages or domestic partnerships, last week’s verdict was “a stride forward,” said Tony Reis, the head of Dignity, a group that defends the rights of homosexuals in the southern city of Curitiba.

Another victory was a ruling by a federal court in Porto Alegre, also in southern Brazil, ordering the social security system to pay a pension to the surviving partner of a deceased homosexual social security contributor.

The judge who handed down that decision, Simone Barbisan Fortes, argued that stable same-sex partnerships based on ties of affection and a social presence “constitute family communities that deserve the protection of the state,” just as married heterosexual couples do.

The recent verdicts are successes that mark “an important moment in the struggle for human rights and against discrimination,” and which were obtained as a result of the mobilisation of Brazil’s gay rights organisations, Reis said in an interview with IPS.

One expression of the movement, the “gay parade”, drew 270,000 people to Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, on Jun 28, he pointed out.

Added to the gay rights campaign are the frequent public reports of gay-bashing and other abuses in the media, which give the movement greater visibility, and international pressure on the Brazilian government, Reis added.

But the main battle is focused on gaining the same civil rights for homosexual domestic partnerships as those enjoyed by conventional married couples. That would provide a solution in many cases and prevent the need for lawsuits and legal proceedings, said the activist.

Gays, lesbians and transvestites, who make up an estimated 10 percent of Brazil’s population of 170 million, are law-abiding, tax-paying citizens like everyone else, which means there is no reason they should not enoy the same rights, he argued.

A bill that would recognise same-sex marriages was introduced to parliament in 1995 by then-parliamentary deputy Marta Suplicy, now mayor of Sao Paulo, although it has been shelved.

Similar laws are already in place in Europe, even in countries like Spain and France, which “have cultures similar to Brazil’s” regarding such questions, said Reis.

While Brazil’s national legislation sets hurdles in the way of efforts to come up with broad solutions, small steps forward are seen at a local level, as well as legal decisions on specific aspects.

Last month, the city council of Recife, the capital of the northeastern state of Pernambuco, approved a statute along the lines of the ruling by the Porto Alegre judge, stipulating that homosexual municipal employees in Recife, in case of death, would leave their partners a pension.

The statute was based on Brazil’s constitution, which ensures rights without discrimination and “respect for homosexuals, without prejudice,” said Recife Mayor Joao Paulo Lima e Silva, who sponsored the ordinance.

But gay-bashing is still common in Brazil. Around 2,000 homosexuals were killed in such incidents in the past 10 years, most of them the victims of extreme forms of cruelty.

The violence is fuelled by “conservative sectors of different religions, the ‘Talibans of the Bible’,” who feed prejudice and stimulate homophobia, said Reis.

The recent court rulings fanned the flames of the controversy over unconventional families, especially with regards to children raised by homosexual couples.

But the resistance to that has also been worn down by a new reality in Brazil, where more than one-quarter of families are headed by women on their own. In many cases of separation or divorce, fathers have won custody of their children, running counter to the traditional tendency.

In several controversial rulings, courts have recognised the right of specific homosexual couples to adopt children.

The case of the son of rock star Cassia Eller had an especially big impact. The outspoken Eller died at age 39 after three cardiac arrests, rumoured to be the result of a drug overdose.