A 22-year-old gay man in Brazil was gang-raped and tortured by homophobic thugs amid rising rates of hate crime in the country, activists.
Warning: distressing
Three armed men reportedly attacked the man last week in Florianópolis in southern Brazil.
The attackers used sharp objects during the assault and also forced the man to carve homophobic slurs into his legs, The Guardian reported.
The victim’s attackers then left him in the street. Bystanders later found him and rushed the man to hospital.
The man is reportedly now recovering at home, and police are investigating the crime.
Lirous Ávila is president of the Association in Defence of Human Rights, a local group helping victims of violence.
She told The Guardian the crime was “frightening” but sadly “very common” in Brazil.
“Violence – not only against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people but also women, black people and immigrants – is worsening,” Ávila said.
Ávila said news of the attack, during Pride Month, had also drawn a sickening reaction across Brazil.
She said while some Brazilians were shocked, others justified the assault because of the man’s sexuality.
“It’s absurd to justify violence that is brutal and barbaric,” Ávila said.
Brazil president’s homophobia encourages violence
Lirous Ávila attributed the rising rates of violence in part to the attitude of Brazil’s leadership.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro once declared himself a “proud homophobe” and has a long history of vile anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric.
“We have a president who compounded this violence,” she said.
“It seems that the population feels it has a right to commit these violent acts against the LGBT population, influenced by Bolsonaro.”
At least 237 LGBT people died in violent attacks in 2020, according to LGBT rights group Grupo Gay da Bahia.
Brazil also has the highest rates of transphobic violence and murders of transgender people in the world.
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Bolzano is a vile man. His boasts that he is anti gay and proud to be so, is beyond contempt.