South America
Lima Pride march participants send message to Peruvians
More than 50,000 marchers demanded equal rights
LIMA, Peru — Not even the gray skies of Lima could dim the vibrant festivities of the Pride march in Peru’s capital on July 1.
This year marked Lima’s 21st annual Pride parade and organizers told the Washington Blade it was the biggest yet. More than 50,000 Peruvians marched through the historic streets of the city center dancing with drums, flags and posters. But for some at the march, Pride this year took on a different tone.
The theme of this year’s march was “Pride is Democracy.” A huge screen on the stage at the center of the Pride festivities had a message which said: “Pride is democracy: For a true democracy with social justice and representation.”
With this theme in mind, most of the people who spoke to the Blade talked about the state of LGBTQ and intersex rights in Peru and their fight to maintain and improve Peru’s democracy.
“This year, more than eight trans women have been murdered in a truly ruthless way,” said Leila Heurta, the director and founder of Feminas Peru, an NGO dedicated to the empowerment of transgender women. “And that is why we can’t forget the political side of the march. That’s why the motto of this year’s march is: without pride, there is no democracy.”
While Peru is a democracy, it is one of the few countries on the continent that offers zero legal recognition for same-sex couples. Further, as many of the marchers pointed out, police often fail to investigate the deaths of murdered trans women or arrest the culprits.
Jorge Apolaya, one of the organizers of this year’s march, told the Blade he believes Peru’s democracy is backsliding.
“[This year’s march] takes place in a year in which we feel that there are more and more setbacks regarding the political situation of the country,” said Apolaya. “Our democracy is getting weaker and weaker. It is very important for us that we can live in a democracy, because only in a democracy can we demand respect for the human rights of LGBT people.”
Despite the lack of rights and legal protections for LGBTQ and intersex people in Peru, many marchers seemed optimistic about their future.
Steve Arnao, a 36-year-old doctor, attended the march with his boyfriend.
“I see a change that is slowly taking place in Peru,” he told the Blade. “But it is important that each year, we join the march and continue fighting for our rights.”
The battle for LGBTQ and intersex rights in Peru is steep.
According to a 2020 Ipsos survey, only 38 percent of Peruvians were in support of civil unions for same-sex couples — seven percentage points higher than a similar survey in 2014, but still nowhere close to a majority of the country.
A 2023 survey from Ipsos revealed that 98 percent of LGBTQ and intersex people surveyed were either “extremely” or “very” dissatisfied with “the role of the State in guaranteeing rights of diverse families/LGBTIQA+ people.” Fifty-six percent of respondents reported having experienced discrimination.
“We will never lose hope,” says Apolaya. “Even with this Congress, as part of civil society and as part of the social fabric of this country, we will continue demanding that the minimum of democracy that we have persists and that we do not lose it.”
Another prominent group of attendees at the march is one that has been steadily increasing in Peru over the last few years: Venezuelan immigrants. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, Peru is the second-largest recipient of Venezuelans and the largest host country of Venezuelan asylum seekers worldwide. Peru hosts more than one million Venezuelans, with most of them living in the capital.
Therefore, many LGBTQ and intersex Venezuelans joined Lima’s Pride parade. One of those Venezuelans was Mariangel Rodriguez. Despite living in Lima for nine years, Rodriguez hasn’t always felt comfortable in LGBTQ and intersex spaces in Peru.
“I think part of my concern about not participating in the previous marches was related to the fact that I’m a minority within a minority,” said Rodriguez. “Being a woman, a migrant who comes from a very hard socio-political context … this has transformed the course of my life.”
Rodriguez went on to describe her experiences with discrimination in Peru.
“In many parts of Peru, it is widespread to see migrants as something negative,” said Rodriguez. “And well, in the past, being a Venezuelan person, obviously I have felt the need to protect and take care of myself by avoiding the marches. But generally, this march has meant something very important to me, not only because it was the first time I went, but also because I saw how many things have evolved in such a short time.”
Despite homophobia and transphobia coming from both the left and right in Peru, many activists have noticed a change in attitudes toward LGBTQ and intersex people, especially among the younger generation.
On the sidelines of the march, one mother held a sign which read: “My son has filled my life with colors.” She told the Blade that her only wish for her 18-year-old child is for him to live his life in the way he wants and for him to be happy.
Brazil
Transgender woman elected to Brazilian Chamber of Deputies
Thabatta Pimenta is first trans person from northeast Brazil elected to Congress
SÃO PAULO — Voters in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Norte state on Sunday elected a transgender woman to the country’s Chamber of Deputies.
Natal Municipal Councilwoman Thabatta Pimenta, who is a member of the Green Party, won with 92,743 votes. She is the first trans woman from northeast Brazil elected to the country’s Congress.
Pimenta became emotional when she was speaking to her supporters after she won. Her brother Ryan, who has cerebral palsy, was by her side.
“This victory belongs to the people of Rio Grande do Norte,” she said. “It is a victory built from the ground up … the people themselves rose up, and you saw the result: today they elected the first female travesti federal deputy from northeast Brazil.”
Pimenta will join Erika Hilton, a travesti member of the leftist Socialism and Liberty (PSOL) party who was a sex worker before her election to the São Paulo Municipal Council, and Duda Salabert, a trans woman and fellow PSOL member from Minas Gerais state, in the Chamber of Deputies.
Hilton on Sunday won re-election with 1,596,472 votes, the most any female member of Congress has received in Brazilian history. Dudabert also won re-election with 215,192 votes.
“Thank you Minas Gerais,” said Dudabert on social media after she won re-election.
❤️ REELEITA!!! Obrigada Minas Gerais! Com muito trabalho, aumentamos nossa votação! Muito orgulho em ser, pela segunda eleição consecutiva, a terceira candidatura mais votada de Minas Gerais para o cargo de deputada federal. E mostramos novamente que é possível fazer uma campanha “lixo zero”- sem imprimir santinhos, bandeiras ou adesivos. Muito feliz! Obrigada Minas ! Obrigada Brasil
— Duda Salabert 5️⃣0️⃣5️⃣0️⃣ (@DudaSalabert) October 5, 2026
Five openly bisexual Chamber of Deputies candidates also won their races on Sunday.
• Guilherme Cortez, a PSOL member in São Paulo state
• Dandara Tonatzin, a member of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party in Minas Gerais
• Anielle Franco, a Workers’ Party member in Rio de Janeiro state
• Maria Marighella, a Workers’ Party member in Bahia state
• Giovana Mondardo, a Brazilian Communist Party member in Santa Catalina state
Fabio Félix, a gay PSOL member of the Chamber of Deputies who represents the Federal District in which Brasília, the country’s capital, is located won re-election with 224,224 votes. Rick Azevedo, a gay PSOL member from Rio de Janeiro state, won his Chamber of Deputies race.
Daiana Santos, a lesbian Brazilian Communist Party member who represents Rio Grande do Sul state in the Chamber of Deputies, won re-election with 114,315 votes.
Two lesbian women won their Chamber of Deputies campaigns.
• Rosa Amorin, a Workers’ Party member from Pernambuco state
• Bella Gonçalves, a Workers’ Party member from Minas Gerais who is a member of the Belo Horizonte Municipal Council
Samanda de Lula, a lesbian Workers’ Party member, will represent Rio Grande do Norte in the Brazilian Senate.
Rio de Janeiro Municipal Councilwoman Mônica Benício, who is a PSOL member, came up short in her bid for the Senate. Her then-partner, Rio de Janeiro Municipal Councilwoman Marielle Franco, and her driver, Anderson Gomes, were assassinated on March 14, 2018.
Fabiano Contarato, a gay senator from Espíritu Santo who is a member of the Workers’ Party, also lost his re-election bid.
“I receive the election results with respect and serenity,” he said on social media. “The popular will is sovereign, and democracy must always be respected.”
Jean Wyllys is a gay former member of the Chamber of Deputies who previously represented Rio de Janeiro state. He resigned in 2019 and fled Brazil after he received death threats. Wyllys this year ran to represent São Paulo state in the Chamber of Deputies, but he did not win his race.
VoteLGBT, an organization that seeks to increase LGBTQ representation in Brazilian politics, noted 529 openly LGBTQ candidates ran in the election. The group on Sunday more than 30 of them won their races across the country.
Natasha Ferreira, a Workers’ Party member, became the first travesti elected to public office in Rio Grande do Sul when she won a seat in the state’s Legislative Assembly. Voters in other states across the country also elected more than 20 LGBTQ candidates to their respective Legislative Assemblies.
• Keka Bagno, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the Federal District Legislative Chamber
• Açucena, a lesbian Workers’ Party member, was elected to the Espíritu Santo Legislative Assembly
• Fabricio Rosa, a gay Workers’ Party member, was elected to the Goiás Legislative Assembly
• Iza Lourença, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the Minas Gerais Legislative Assembly
• Tiago Botelho, a gay Workers’ Party member, was elected to the Minas Gerais Legislative Assembly
• Flávio Brasileiro, a gay Workers’ Party member, was elected to the Paraíba Legislative Assembly
• Dani Balbi, a trans Brazilian Communist Party member, was elected to the Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly
• Verônica Lima, a lesbian Workers’ Party member, was elected to the Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly
• Dani Monteiro, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly
• Jean Volpato, a gay Workers’ Party member, was elected to the Santa Catarina Legislative Assembly
• Linda Brasil, a trans PSOL member, was elected to the Sergipe Legislative Assembly
• Sofia Favero, a trans PSOL member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly
• Paula Nunes dos Santos, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly
• Ediane Maria, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly
• Monica das Pretas, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly
• Duda Hidalgo, a bisexual Workers’ Party member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly
• Rodrigo Mar, a bisexual Workers’ Party member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly
• Thainara Faria, a bisexual Workers’ Party member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly
• Keit Lima, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly
Lula and Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, whose father is former President Jair Bolsonaro, will face off in the presidential election’s second round on Oct. 25.
Brazil
Lula, Flávio Bolsonaro to face off in second round of Brazilian presidential election
Neither man received at least 50 percent of the vote on Sunday
SÃO PAULO — President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face off against Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro in the second round of Brazil’s presidential election on Oct. 25 after neither man received more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round that took place on Sunday.
Bolsonaro was ahead of Lula by a 47.03-45.16 percent margin with 100 percent of the vote counted.
Lula in 2022 defeated Bolsonaro’s father, then-President Jair Bolsonaro, in that year’s presidential election.
The Brazilian Supreme Court last year sentenced Bolsonaro — who repeatedly targeted LGBTQ Brazilians and other groups while in office — to more than 27 years in prison for his role in an attempted coup that saw thousands of his supporters storm the Congress, presidential palace, and the Supreme Court itself on Jan. 8, 2023. Bolsonaro is currently serving his sentence at his home in Brasília, the country’s capital, because of his poor health. His son has pledged to pardon him if he becomes the country’s next president.
Lula, who leads Brazil’s leftist Workers’ Party, was Brazil’s president from 2003-2010.
Sergio Moro, a judge who Jair Bolsonaro later tapped as his government’s Justice and Public Security Minister, in 2017 sentenced Lula to 9 1/2 years in prison after his conviction on money laundering and corruption charges that stemmed from Operation Car Wash.
The Supreme Court in November 2019 ordered Lula’s release.
VoteLGBT, an organization that seeks to increase LGBTQ representation in Brazilian politics, noted 529 openly LGBTQ candidates ran in this year’s election. More than 100 of them are either transgender or travesti.
The Washington Blade will cover the results of these races when they become available.
Brazil
529 openly LGBTQ candidates running in Brazilian election
Lula running against Jair Bolsonaro’s son in presidential contest
Editor’s note: International News Editor Michael K. Lavers will be on assignment in Brazil through Oct. 6.
SÃO PAULO — 529 openly LGBTQ candidates are running for in the Brazilian election that will take place on Sunday.
VoteLGBT, an organization that seeks to increase LGBTQ representation in Brazilian politics, notes 109 of these candidates are either transgender or travesti. They include Congresswomen Erika Hilton and Duda Salabert, who made history in 2022 as the first travesti and first trans women respectively to win seats in the Brazilian Congress.
Hilton, a member of the leftist Socialism and Liberty Party, known by the acronym PSOL, is a former sex worker who was a member of the São Paulo Municipal Council before her election to Congress. She currently chairs the Chamber of Deputies’ Women’s Rights Commission.
The Chamber of Deputies is Congress’s lower house.
Salabert, who is also a member of PSOL, represents Minas Gerais state in the Chamber of Deputies. Both she and Hilton in 2025 sharply criticized the Trump-Vance administration after it listed their gender as “male” on American visas that would have allowed them to travel to the U.S.
Benny Briolly is a travesti woman and member of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party who is running to represent Rio de Janeiro state in the Chamber of Deputies. Thabatta Pimenta is a trans woman of mixed ethnicity who is running to represent Rio Grande do Norte state in the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the Green Party.
Nicolas is a trans masculine bisexual man from Pará state who is part of the Banca Transformer, a “collective candidature” for the Chamber of Deputies that VoteLGBT notes is “100 percent trans and lead by a trans masculine person.” Mãe Kaká Garcia is a gay travesti woman of African descent who is running to represent Mato Grosso state in the Chamber of Deputies as a member of PSOL.
“My bid for Congress stems from my life story and the need to bring voices that have historically been marginalized into the political arena,” Garcia told the Washington Blade.
“I am a Black travesti woman and a leader within the African-derived religious community, with a background in work, entrepreneurship, and community activism in Mato Grosso,” she added. “I am intimately familiar with the challenges faced by the LGBTQIA+ community, the Black population, women, and terreiro communities.”
Garcia added she is running because she believes “these spaces must also be occupied by people who live these realities.”
“I want issues such as combating violence against trans people, racism, religious intolerance, protections for women, LGBTQIA+ rights, and social policies to be treated as permanent public policies,” she said.
Associaçao Nacional de Travestis e Transexuais (National Association of Travestis and Transsexuals) President Bruna Benavides in a statement to the Blade praised all of the trans and travesti candidates.
“For ANTRA, the strength of trans and travesti candidacies lies in what our representatives already demonstrate through their work in office — acting beyond the LGBTQIA+ agenda in areas such as education, health, labor, human rights, culture, the environment, public safety, and the fight against inequality,” she said. “The presence of trans people is already a reality, and democracy needs them in politics — not merely as representatives of an identity, but as agents capable of shaping initiatives that benefit society as a whole.”
“Politics will only be truly transformed when it incorporates the perspectives and experiences of those historically excluded from centers of power — people who have nonetheless envisioned a nation where everyone can be free and live with dignity and security,” she added.
The Blade also spoke with other openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual candidates.
Uédem Lima is a bisexual, Makuxi Indigenous man who is running to represent Roraima state in the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement.
“I am 23-years-old, a Makuxi Indigenous man, and bisexual,” he told the Blade. “I come from a reality where young people, Indigenous people, and LGBTQ+ individuals often still face difficulties in occupying spaces where decisions are made.”
“My candidacy is also a way to show that these spaces can — and must — be occupied by people who know these realities firsthand,” added Lima.
He told the Blade that education, health, climate justice, and Indigenous rights are among the top issues on which he will work in Congress if elected. Lima added his life in Roraima state, which borders Venezuela and Guyana in northern Brazil, and his identity will further shape his tenure.
“I know what it is like to grow up in Roraima, experience the shifts between the interior and the capital, and forge my path while carrying multiple identities,” he said. “I do not want to separate these parts of who I am. They are part of my story and also help explain why I chose to enter politics.”
Former Congressman Jean de Wyllys, who is the first openly gay man elected to the Brazilian Congress, resigned in 2019 and fled the country after he received death threats that he claimed came from supporters of then-President Jair Bolsonaro. De Wyllys at the time of his resignation represented Rio de Janeiro state and had just been elected for a third term.
De Wyllys has returned to Brazil and is running to represent São Paulo state in the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the Workers’ Party.
“My decision to return to present myself as a candidate is linked to the public responsibility with respect to this year’s elections, the most important for the future of Latin America in the last two decades,” he told the Blade. “Everyone knows that not just our region, but the whole world is a stage for a clash between two projects: one led by Donald Trump and his far-right (supporters) internationally that is neofascist, neocolonial, and neofeudalistic, and the other spearheaded by China that advocates for multipolarity, nations’ sovereignty, and global cooperation to overcome challenges, such as the climate crisis and possible pandemics.”
“As someone who enjoys national popularity and international connections, and having served two highly productive terms regarding human rights and cultural diversity, I could not ignore the electorate’s calls to participate in this global contest — and not merely as an intellectual and artist,” added de Wyllys.
Mônica Benício is a Rio de Janeiro Municipal Councilwoman who is running for the Brazilian Senate as a PSOL member.
Her widow, Rio de Janeiro Municipal Councilwoman Marielle Franco, and her driver, Anderson Gomes, were murdered on March 14, 2018. One of the two former police officers later convicted lived in the same condominium complex in the city’s exclusive Barra da Tijuca neighborhood in which Bolsonaro lived at the time. (Bolsonaro was not president when the murders took place, and strongly denied media reports that suggested one of the suspects visited his home before Franco and Gomes were killed.)
Franco was also friends with De Wyllys and a political ally.
“After Marielle’s assassination, the LGBTQIAPN+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual/travesti/, queer, intersex, asexual, pansexual, nonbinary) community was one of the networks that embraced me and gave me the strength to carry on,” Benício told the Blade on Tuesday. “My Senate candidacy stems from this very commitment: to transform that affection and collective strength into a voice, protection, and rights within Congress.”
Benício stressed the LGBTQ and intersex community “needs to occupy more decision-making spaces.”
“I want to reach the Senate so that our rights, families, and lives are represented where laws are made,” she said.
Lula is running for a second consecutive term.
He defeated Bolsonaro in the second round of the 2022 presidential election.
The Brazilian Supreme Court last year sentenced Bolsonaro — who repeatedly targeted LGBTQ Brazilians and other groups while in office — to more than 27 years in prison for his role in an attempted coup that saw thousands of his supporters storm the Congress, presidential palace, and the Supreme Court itself on Jan. 8, 2023. Bolsonaro is currently serving his sentence at his home in Brasília, the country’s capital, because of his poor health.
Lula main challenger in this year’s presidential election is Bolsonaro’s son, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro.
A second round will take place on Oct. 25 if no candidate receives at least 50 percent of the vote.
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