São Paulo Pride draws thousands

Parade attendees urge government to criminalize homophobic behaviour

Thousands of revellers took to São Paulo’s streets May 4 to celebrate the city’s 18th Pride parade, calling on government to establish legislation to combat hate crime motivated by homophobia, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.

Estimates from police and event organizers of the parade’s size typically conflict, and this year was no different. While organizers claimed that more than one million people turned out for the event, authorities quoted the more conservative figure of 100,000, United Press International (UPI) says.

Grupo Gay de Bahia reports that while crimes against LGBT people in Brazil decreased from 2012, more than 300 people were killed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity in 2013. AFP says lawmakers with Catholic and evangelical Christian affiliations have resisted the introduction of hate-crime legislation.

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

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