Brazilian President: 'Criminalize Words Offensive to Homosexuality'

Lula has for several years sought to pass a 'homophobia law' that would make it a crime to criticize homosexual behavior.>

BELEN, BRAZIL (LifeSiteNews.com) - Brazilian President Luiz Lula is promising homosexual leaders that he will continue to seek to criminalize speech that is critical of homosexuality.

In a written address delivered to the Third Congress of the Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites, and Transsexuals (ABGLT), Lula denounced groups, most of them Christian, who have objected to plans to outlaw such speech, calling them "hypocrites."

"Some backward as well as hypocritical sectors ... have criticized our government for supporting initiatives that criminalize words or acts that are offensive to homosexuality," he wrote. "That has no importance. I will continue, with the support of the entire government, to maintain that attitude."

As LifeSiteNews has reported in the past, Lula has for several years sought to pass a "homophobia law" that would make it a crime to criticize homosexual behavior.

Although he has failed to achieve his goal as of yet, in many cases Brazilian courts already enforce existing laws as if they prohibit such speech. Religious groups and individuals have been censored and fined for criticizing homosexual behavior, including one organization whose pro-family campaign was canceled by court order.

Julio Severo, one of Brazil's most famous pro-life and pro-family activists, fled the country recently after investigators sought his address following a complaint of "homophobia" lodged against him. He now lives in exile in an undisclosed location (see LifeSiteNews coverage at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09040914.html).

At the same conference, Brazil's most influential homosexual leader, Luiz Mott, called on homosexuals to kill attackers in "legitimate defense" according to the homosexual website A Capa.

Citing statistics indicating an increase in the number of murders of homosexuals over the previous year, Mott stated that "if in the next poll this number increases, we must radicalize. And for that purpose we are going to have a campaign where we say 'Kill in legitimate defense, protect yourself."

Although Mott's organization, the Gay Association of Bahia, claims that "homophobic" murders are high, its counts define all murders of all homosexuals as acts of "homophobia," even when they involve male prostitutes apparently killed by a john.

Moreover, the total murder rate for homosexuals documented by Mott is significantly lower than the overall murder rate, per capita, in Brazil, as LifeSiteNews has previously reported. While the overall rate is 28 per 100,000 people, the rate of murders of homosexuals in Brazil is 1.31 per 100,000, according to Mott's statistics.

Homosexualist leaders reacted with alarm to Mott's statements, according to A Capa.

Supporting FREE Catholic Education with Grass-fed Beef

Caio Varela, an advisor to Brazilian Senator Fatima Cleide, complained that "he doesn't understand that tomorrow some queer out there at the end of the world might read that in some site or publication and commit a crime."

---

LifeSiteNews.com is a non-profit Internet service dedicated to issues of culture, life, and family. It was launched in September 1997. LifeSiteNews Daily News reports and information pages are used by numerous organizations and publications, educators, professionals and political, religious and life and family organization leaders and grassroots people across North America and internationally.