Dua Lipa speaks out about Brazil’s anti-LGBT presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro
WANTAGH, NY – JUNE 16: Dua Lipa performs at 103.5 KTU’s KTUphoria on June 16, 2018 in Wantagh City. (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for 103.5 KTU)
Singer Dua Lipa and other musicians have spoken out against Brazil’s anti-LGBT presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro.
The politician, who is a frontrunner in the presidential race, has made several homophobic comments, including that he would rather have a dead son over a gay one.
Dua Lipa retweeted an opinion piece for the New York Times on Bolsonaro’s comments, adding the hashtag #EleNão, a popular slogan used against the candidate that roughly translates from Portuguese to “not him.”
Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party leads the polls after former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—commonly known as Lula—was banned from running because he is serving a 12-year jail term for corruption.
Jair Bolsonaro (NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty)
Diplo, Nicole Scherzinger and Shangela also tweeted the Ele Não hashtag.
“To all my fans in Brazil: I’m sending so much love. Stand up for Equality, Respect and Love. Make sure to VOTE in the upcoming Presidential election and be heard,” Scherzinger wrote.
Speaking to TIME last month, he stood by a previous statement that if he saw two men kissing in the street, he would punch them.
“I do not kiss my wife on the street. Why face society? Why take that into the school? Little children of 6 or 7, watching two men kiss as the government wanted them to do. Is this democracy?” asked Bolsonaro.
In 2015, Bolsonaro said hospital patients should be allowed to reject ‘gay blood.’
Bolsonaro is a presidential frontrunner (NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty)
Violent deaths of LGBT people in Brazil reached an all-time high in 2017, the country’s oldest LGBT watchdog Grupo Gay de Bahia reported earlier this year.
There were 387 murders and 58 suicides of LGBT people last year, marking a 30 percent increase from the reported 327 deaths in 2016.
Brazil has a high homicide rate, however the watchdog has said that it has only included deaths that were directly caused by homophobic or transphobic violence.
Luiz Mott, the president of Grupo Gay de Bahia said that the rising levels of violence were partially caused by the growth and publicity of ultra-conservative politicians.
