A city councilman in Brazil is paving the way for heterosexuals to stand against excessive gay rights with the nation’s first Heterosexual Pride Day. But some Christian ministries that work with gays think this so-called Straight Pride Day sends a divisive message.
Carlos Apolinário’s legislation proposes to celebrate heterosexual pride on the third Sunday of December. Although the mayor could rain on the parade by not signing the bill, Heterosexual Pride Day is set to take place in Brazil’s largest city—São Paulo—where gay pride marches frequently take over the city streets.
“I respect gays and I am against any kind of aggression made against them,” Apolinário said. “The creation of Heterosexual Day does not symbolize a struggle against gays but against what I believe are excesses and privileges.”
Perhaps ironically, gays and Christians alike agree that Straight Pride Day is a bad idea. With the percentage of gays killed in Brazil rising 113 percent in the last few years, the Brazilian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Association is concerned that Apolinário’s Heterosexual Pride Day could incite homophobic violence.
Jeff Buchanan, executive vice president of Exodus International, an interdenominational Christian ministry that assists those who struggle with same-sex attraction, is more concerned about social persecution than acts of violence.
