Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had the First National Conference of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals (GLBT), inaugurated by presidential decree, and called for "a time of reparation" in Brazil.
Accompanied by six ministers, Lula exhorted all those opposed to the gay-rights movement to "open and purify their minds." Lula then announced his complete support for the homosexual movement, saying that he is "going to do all that is possible so that the criminalization of homophobia and the civil union may be approved."
After calling for a universal embrace of the homosexual movement, the president affirmed that "homophobia" is perhaps "the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head. We need to like ourselves the way we are."
Seated in the first row of the conference were Luiz Mott, Toni Reis, Sergio Mamberti, Senator Fátima Cleide, Rep. Cida Diogo and gay militant Beto de Jesus. There was also a large international presence as delegates from 14 countries attended the event. This groundbreaking homosexual convention under government sponsorship is one of the many such national and international efforts funded and led by the Lula administration.
The homosexual website MixBrasil reports that Human Rights Secretary Paulo Vannuchi "remembered the Holocaust," comparing the killing of six million Jews to that of five-fifteen thousand homosexuals. Vannuchi also suggested that there were significant similarities between the homosexual movement and the fight against the enslavement of the blacks. He then received a long, standing ovation for suggesting that, "homophobia is incompatible with democracy."
According to MixBrasil, Vannuchi "finished his speech by giving three recommendations to the homosexual movement: It should not get lost in fighting, it should understand that its opponents are people imprisoned by taboos that use more strategies to convince than to confront, and it should understand that the homosexual fight is part of other human rights fights, like the fight for children, disabled, blacks and aged."
When the time came for the pro-abortion Health Minister José Gomes Temporão to give his speech, he credited the fight against AIDS to homosexual rights activists. Gomes, who has for a long time been manifesting support for the legalization of abortion in Brazil, also announced that by late June public hospitals would begin to perform sex change surgeries.
In his speech, Toni Reis, president of ABGLT (Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals), presented a proposal for the creation of a statute for homosexuals, following the pattern of Brazil's Child and Adolescent Statute.
The Child and Adolescent Statute lays out in great detail the specific rights, protections and privileges enjoyed by and the responsibility of the state and civil society for children and adolescents. Reis also asked for the approval of homosexuality in the form of the civil union, as well as the criminalization of homophobia, to which Lula applauded vehemently.
"We will stop at nothing to approve gay rights," Reis said.
Concluding his appeal, Paulo Vannuchi brought a four-year old girl to the lap of President Lula and on the microphone he exclaimed, "Brazil without homophobia!"
LifeSiteNews – www.LifeSiteNews.com