GGB 2015 report on murders against LGBT in Brazil Photo: What did I do?
Marcelo Cerqueira
Gay Group of Bahia (GGB), the oldest non-governmental organization for the LGBT rights in Brazil, has just released their annual report on crimes against LGBT people. The organization, founded and run by Luiz Mott for many years, is now chaired by Marcelo Cerqueira.
Luiz Mott
Nonetheless, Mott with a Ph.D. in anthropology from Sorbonne University still works with the organization and is held accountable for the report. For decades now, he has been working as an LGBT activist, and continues to be one of the most respected figures of the LGBT movement in Brazil.
318 LGBT people were brutally murdered in 2015, which means that one LGBT person was violently killed every 27 hours in Brazil. The proportion of crimes by sexual orientation or gender identity was the following:
52% gay men
37% transvestites and transexuals
16% lesbians
10% bisexuals
Oddly enough, non-LGBT people have been victimized by homophobia as well: 7% of the murders were against straight people mistakenly identified by the killers as being gay and 1% of the killings was against lovers of transvestites.
Proportionally speaking, GGB found that transvestites and transexuals are 14 times more likely to be victimized than a gay man.
The states where most killings took place were São Paulo (55 murders) and Bahia (33 murders). However, considering demographic proportions, the leading states in terms of murders were Mato Grosso do Sul (6.49 per million inhabitants) and Amazonas (6.45 per million).
Across the country, 187 cities registered homophobic or transphobic crimes. Manaus, the capital of Amazonas, was the most homophobic, having accounted for 23 killings (11.3 per million inhabitants), followed by Porto Velho, the capital of Rondônia, where five deaths were recorded (10.1 per million). Both of the capitals are in northern Brazil.
By region, the Northeast was found to be the most violent with 106 deaths. The Southeast registered 99 and the North accounted for 50, while the Center-West recorded 40 and the South, 21.
The youngest lethal victim was Michael, aged 13. He was from Rio Claro, state of São Paulo. He was in the process of building a feminine performance when he was stabbed 15 times on the street.
The oldest victim was a renowned psychic, aged 74, who lived in Rio de Janeiro. He was found gagged and spanked in his own house.
According to the report, only one criminal out of four has been identified and only 94 cases out of those 318 murders have faced prosecution.
Dr. Mott highlights the rapid growth in crimes against LGBT people during the three latest presidents’ administrations: Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Lula, and Dilma Rousseff. The current administration (Dilma Rousseff) is the worst of the three from that standpoint.
