Brazil’s ‘proud homophobe’ Jair Bolsonaro just tested positive for coronavirus after dinner with Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro attend a joint news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House March 19, 2019. (Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty)
The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has reportedly tested positive for coronavirus, despite calling the pandemic a “fantasy” a week ago.
Bolsonaro has previously called himself a “proud homophobe” and has said he would rather have dead son than a gay one.
He was tested for COVID-19 yesterday, which last week he called a “fantasy”, after his press secretary, Fabio Wajngarten, tested positive.
Now, a major Rio de Janeiro newspaper has confirmed that the homophobic Brazilian president has also tested positive. He is reportedly waiting for the results of a second test to double-check his diagnosis.
Major Rio de Janeiro newspaper reporting that president Jair Bolsonaro’s first test has come back positive for coronavirus https://t.co/f7yTVDtwDG
— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) March 13, 2020
According to Reuters, Bolsonaro said in Miami during a US visit: “During the past year, obviously, we have had moments of crisis. A lot of that is fantasy. And coronavirus, which is not all the mainstream media makes it out to be.”
This could be very bad news for another anti-LGBT+ world leader; on Saturday, March 7, Bolsonaro and Wajngarten spent many hours sitting right next to US president Donald Trump, for a dinner at his at Mar-a-Lago resort.
Bolsonaro's press minister Fabio Wajngarten who was just with Trump over the weekend at Mar a Lago has tested positive for coronavirus pic.twitter.com/KxdzBjbxlF— Olga Lautman 🇺🇦 (@OlgaNYC1211) March 12, 2020
More anti-LGBT+ political figures from both Brazil and the US also attended the dinner, including US vice president Mike Pence, and Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo. We can assume that there was a lot of hand shaking.
But Trump does not appear to be taking the direct contact with someone with a confirmed case of COVID-19 too seriously, despite being well over the age of 60.
Last year, the political opposition in Brazil said that Bolsonaro’s “macho ideas” are responsible for promoting violence against LGBT+ people and women in the country.
Despite the criminalisation of homophobia and transphobia, Brazil is the deadliest country in the world for transgender people.
The Brazilian president also said last year: “Brazil can’t be a country of the gay world, of gay tourism. We have families.”
