Brazil’s LGBTQIA+ community react as Lula’s presidency hails return to temperance

After Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presidential victory speech, in which he spoke about “times of peace, love and hope”, the new president of Brazil and his supporters took to the streets on the famous Paulista Avenue, applauding as he went on to assert: “We are one country, one people – a great nation”. 

Ecstatic supporters filled the streets with tears in their eyes, and hopes for a better future. The new president vowed to better Brazil, via efforts to save the Amazon Rainforest, as well as to reinstate and protect fundamental human rights. 

The new era comes as a relief after the violent words of the previous president, Jair Bolsonaro, who caused a significant rise in anti-LGBTQIA+ violence. Nicknamed the ‘Trump of the Tropics’, Bolsonaro repeatedly attacked the LGBTQIA+ community time and time again, and went so far as to call himself a “proud homophobe”.

But in one of the country’s most divisive elections, Brazilians saw Lula secure 50.9 per cent of the vote, while Bolsonaro lost with 49.10 per cent. Silva had previously served as president from 2003 to 2010, but was not allowed to stand in 2018 after corruption charges, which were eventually annulled. During this his time, he launched the ‘First National Conference of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Trasnvestites and Transsexuals’ in Brazil,l and has openly spoken out against homophobia.

Following his new victory, Silva said in his speech, “I will govern for 215m Brazilians … and not just for those who voted for me”, and was met with waves of applause by the people of Brazil, who are evidently relieved to usher in a more temperate time.