The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
January 25, 2019

Brazil: Openly Gay Lawmaker Flees the Country Amid Death Threats
----------------------------------------------------------------

Brazil's first elected openly gay federal lawmaker said Thursday he's
leaving his post and has fled Brazil, amid growing homophobic violence
coinciding with the rise of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. Jean
Wyllys, who first took office in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies in 2011,
told a São Paulo newspaper he's received a number of death threats in
recent weeks and has felt unsafe since his friend and political ally
Marielle Franco-an LGBTQ activist and Rio city councilmember-was
assassinated last March. Two suspects in Franco's murder are members of
a criminal syndicate who have ties to President Bolsonaro's son, Flávio
Bolsonaro. President Jair Bolsonaro has a history of making racist,
misogynistic and homophobic comments, and has threatened to destroy,
imprison or banish his political opponents. Jean Wyllys was elected to a
third term in office in October; he will be replaced in Brazil's
Congress by David Miranda, a Rio city councilmember and husband of
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald.


.