Are You Ready For Sao Paulo's 'Heterosexual Pride Day?'

SAO PAULO (The Blaze/AP) -- The city council of South America's biggest city has adopted legislation calling for a Heterosexual Pride Day to be celebrated on the third Sunday of each December.

Poking fun at the city's proposal, Gawker's Jeff Neumann writes:

If anyone's been put down by society for far too long — besides young white males — it's the straights, of course. That's precisely why members of Sao Paulo, Brazil's city council have adopted legislation to create Heterosexual Pride Day.

Sao Paulo Mayor Gilberto Kassab must sign the legislation for it to become law and has said only that he is studying it. His office declined Wednesday to say whether he supports the proposal.

The legislation's author, Carlos Apolinario, said the idea for a Heterosexual Pride Day is "not anti-gay but a protest against the privileges the gay community enjoys."

As an example, he mentioned how Sao Paulo's huge gay pride day parade is held every year on Paulista Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares in this city of 20 million people, while the March for Jesus organized by evangelical groups is not allowed on the same avenue.

"I respect gays and I am against any kind of aggression made against them," Apolinario said. "I have no trouble coexisting with gays as long as their behavior is normal."

Perhaps out of outrage for the current legislation, it appears the councilman's web site has been compromised by a group called RedHack. Currently, text on the web site CarolsApolinario.com.br reads (translated):

In Brazil, a homosexual is killed every 36 hours, this type of crime has increased 113% over the past five years. In 2010, 260 were killed. Only the first three months of this year were 65 murders.

Councilman Carlos Apolinario insists propose laws that contribute to the spread of hatred and discrimination. From War to genocide the massacres of Oslo and Utoya, those who preach the superiority of one over another are responsible for the actions of the most damning history.

The Brazilian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Association criticized the legislation, saying it could provoke homophobic violence.

"How many LGBTs will be attacked because of the message that only heterosexuality makes someone a moral person and a good citizen," the association said in a statement.

"The celebration of heterosexual pride is inappropriate because it belittles the just cause of the LGBT community," the statement added. "Unlike homosexuals, heterosexuals are not discriminated against simply for being heterosexuals."

The Christian Science Monitor discusses just how serious related problems have become in the region:

While São Paulo is home to a vibrant gay scene, homophobia is a constant concern. The legislation comes just a few weeks after a conservative congressman in the capital Brasilia courted controversy by apparently calling blacks promiscuous, and then declaring himself proud to be prejudiced against gays. And last month a group of youths attacked and maimed a father they thought was gay because he hugged his teenage son.

In a recent report, the gay rights group Grupo Gay da Bahia corroborates RedHack's claim that 260 gays were murdered last year in Brazil, up 113 percent from five years earlier.