Elections in Brazil: LGBT + candidates want to fight anti-trans violence
Neon Cunha, transgender candidate for the left-wing PSOL party in the São Paulo State Parliament elections.
© Achim Lippold / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Brazilians vote Sunday, October 2 for a new president but also for their regional and national deputies, as well as for the governors.
Never have so many LGBT people presented themselves as legislative candidates.
One of them is Neon Cunha, a transgender activist from São Bernardo do Campo, the working-class suburb of São Paulo.
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With our special correspondent in São Paulo,
Achim Lippold
“
I am a black,
Native American
, poor suburban, transgender
woman ” is how Neon Cunha introduces herself.
And she insists on the order of these attributes.
Her political awareness was born very early, as was her awareness of the threat hanging over people like her: “
In 1987, I was already demonstrating in the streets of Sao Paulo.
I saw how a police officer shot a trans Afro-Brazilian in the head.
This execution took place right before my eyes.
An execution like so many others.
Have things really changed
?
»
For 13 years, Brazil has held the
sad world record for murders of transgender women
.
More than 1,500 murders in a decade.
It was the assassination of Afro-Brazilian deputy Marielle Franco in Rio de Janeiro in 2018 that prompted Neon Cunha to present her candidacy for election to the Sao Paulo State Parliament.
With the program of defending the most deprived women.
“
Among my demands is the right to have a place in a crèche from the start of pregnancy.
There are people who wait three years for a place in a crèche.
The state prohibits abortion but does not offer support to single mothers
”.
Neon Cunha is a public official and fashion designer.
Does she feel like she's moved up the social ladder?
“
No.
I never get out of my condition as a black, transgender and suburban woman.
When I was twelve, I started working at the town hall of Sao Bernardo do Campo.
I remember the white secretaries staring down at me… no, if you come from the suburbs, you never get out
”
Like the entire LGBT community, Neon Cunha is looking
forward to a victory for Lula
.
But she promises to fight for the left to go ever further to the left.
► Also to listen:
Presidential in Brazil: a country cut in two
Presidential in Brazil in 4 points
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Brazil
LGBT+
Jair Bolsonaro
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Human rights