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Luis Lula, President of Brazil, makes a stand against discrimination
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Brazilian President calls homophobia "perverse"
"Homophobes must open and purify their minds!"
Brazilian President Luis Lula has called for a "time of reparation" to the country's LGB communities at the inauguration of the First National Congress of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals. Standing alongside no fewer than six Ministers he called on anyone with homophobic leanings to "open and purify their minds".
Taking probably the most pro-gay stance of any world leader, he announced his unreserved support for the gay movement and his full support for Civil Unions adding that homophobia was probably "the most perverse disease implanted in the human head".
Following Lula in the speeches was Human Rights Secretary Paulo Vanucchi who compared the persecution of the homosexual population to the Holocaust and said there were significant similarities between the movement towards gay liberation and the freeing of the slaves. He finished his speech by bringing his four-year-old daughter to sit on President Lula's lap while he took the microphone to pronounce "Brazil without homophobia!"
