Sao Paulo OKs Pride Day—for Heterosexuals

Mayor must still sign it before it becomes law
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 4, 2011 8:56 AM CDT
Sao Paulo OKs Pride Day— for Heteros
A drag queen takes part in the Gay Pride Parade at Paulista Avenue in the financial centre of Sao Paulo, on May 25, 2008.   (Getty Images)

We're here, not queer, get used to it? Sao Paolo's city council has just passed legislation designating an official Heterosexual Pride Day to be held on the third Sunday of each December, the AP reports. Mayor Gilberto Kassab must sign the bill before it goes into effect, however, and he hasn't said if he will. The bill's author, Carlos Apolinario, insists it's "not anti-gay, but a protest against the privileges the gay community enjoys."

Apolinario complained, for example, that the city's massive gay pride parade is allowed to march down Paulista Avenue—a major thoroughfare—while the March for Jesus is not. "I have no trouble coexisting with gays as long as their behavior is normal," Apolinario said. But the Brazilian LGBT Association thinks the legislation will provoke homophobic violence. "It belittles the just cause of the LGBT community," the group said in a statement. "Unlike homosexuals, heterosexuals are not discriminated against simply for being heterosexuals." (More gay pride stories.)

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