Brazil: Kiss-in for homosexual and abortion rights

beijaco

São Paulo will stop on Sunday, 7th of February, for an evening of mass kissing. From 17:00, people will meet at the corner of Avenida Paulista and Rua Augusta to kiss each other in protest against resistance to the Brazilian government's recent third edition of the National Program for Human Rights (PNDH-3). Augusto Bazárov [pt], Twitter user @Guttto, explains the event:

Trata-se de um ato público, organizado por tuiteiros que usam o ciberativismo como ferramenta de mudança social. Dele, participam mulheres e homens; homo, hétero e bissexuais, travestis e transexuais. Pessoas preocupadas em defender medidas históricas contempladas no 3º Plano de Direitos Humanos, apresentado pela Secretária Nacional de Direitos Humanos do Governo Federal. Dentre estes direitos estão: a união civil entre pessoas do mesmo sexo, a criminalização da homofobia, a legalização do aborto e a adoção homoparental. Estas propostas foram duramente atacadas, sobretudo por setores da imprensa e por lideranças religiosas católicas (CNBB).

This is a public event, organized by twitter users who use cyberactivism as a tool for social change. It will be attended by women and men, homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual people, transvestites and transsexuals. All people concerned about defending the historical measures contemplated in the 3rd National Program for Human Rights, proposed by the National Secretary of Human Rights of the Federal Government. Among these rights are: same sex civil union, the criminalization of homophobia, the legalization of abortion and homo-parenting adoption. These proposals have been strongly attacked, especially by the press and Catholic religious leaders (CNBB, the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops).

@souminha, from the “Cultivando a Verdade” blog provides another post about the idea of the protest [pt]:

A ideia é mostrar, com muita alegria, que as pessoas são diferentes umas das outras, nascem, vivem, se beijam, amam, se relacionam com quem bem entendem, e independente de um ou outro grupo que torce o nariz, sua vida vai continuar acontecendo no anonimato de suas casas.

Não adianta um padre, um jornalista ou um senador achar que vai impedir os gays de constituir família, as mulheres de dispor de suas vidas ou o mundo de girar.

Isso acontece, e o PNDH, as militâncias e lutas sociais servem para reconhecer essa existência e garantir que o Estado não negligencie nenhum cidadão ou lhe tire o direito à dignidade.

The idea is to show, joyfully, that people are different from each other, they are born, live, kiss, love, have relationships with whomever they please, regardless of some group or another turning up their nose at them, their lives go on in the privacy of their own homes. It is useless for priests, journalists or Senators to think they will be able to stop gays from starting a family, women from living their lives or the world going round.
This happens, though, and the PNDH, advocacy groups and social protest help to make this life style recognised and to ensure that the State does not neglect any citizen or take away anybody's rights to dignity.

Lourenço Cavalcanti in 23B [pt] is another blogger standing up  for the Beijaço [Kiss-in]. He adds his voice to the conversations:

A razão de ser do beijaço é atrair para nós a atenção da sociedade, e, aos olhos de todos, reclamar nossos direitos. É assim, de forma afetuosa e amorosa, que os gays marcam posição. Os grupos conservadores vão cair de pau em cima, dizendo que essa é mais uma prova do fim dos tempos, e tudo mais, mas deixem eles gritarem.

The raison d'être of Beijaço is to focus the attention of society on us, and, in front of everyone, to claim our rights. It is with affection and love that gays stand up for their position. Conservative groups will jump on us, by saying this is a proof of the end of the world, and so on, but let them scream.

The HTML code of the campaign's banner has been published on hundreds of blogs and websites and can be found here:

<a href="http://cultivandoaverdade.blogspot.com/2010/01/beijos-em-protesto-pelos-direitos.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://mnpv.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/beijaco.png?w=199" width="160" height="255" style="border-style:none;" title="Defenda o PNDH" alt="PNDH" /></a>

A Facebook event page has been created to support the “Beijaço” (the Kiss-in) on February 7th.

Many bloggers and Twitter users have been supporting the cause, using the banner or just spreading the date, locations and posting about the Kiss-in protest. The main organizers of the protest are: @souminha | @Guttto | @mariana_parra | @RadomileCarol | @djalepeixoto | @ticamoreno | @umberto_neto | @alineando | @cissablond | @aarles | @Tsavkko

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