International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

One thing is clear about Human Rights: they are universal. However, some of us suffer from a special kind of threat because of our sexual orientation or identity. The UK stands behind the idea that any form of discrimination is unacceptable – this means that rights are equal for all of us.

Regarding civil rights, one the entire LGBT community has been fighting for is the right to marry. In Brazil, same sex marriage was considered constitutional by the Supreme Court Resolution 175. In the UK, it was a bill of law named the Marriage Act 2013. Yet, there are still 82 countries in the world where homosexuality – and in most cases, all orientation and identity diversity – is considered illegal. A lot of these laws date from the 19^th century.

Brazil has come a long way in fighting Homophobia and Transphobia. It is a free country, where diversity is well accepted. Civil Society is fully engaged in policy making and represented in the Human Rights Secretariat, as well as the National LGBT and Diversity Councils. There is still more to do, especially if we consider the rise in homophobic crimes since 2011, as well as an increasing number of conservative groups inside Congress, since homophobia is not considered a crime.

At the British Embassy in Brasilia, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia was big. Among our actions, we had the LGBT flag next to the Union Jack (in a joint action with EU, Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and Finland); staff dressed in the rainbow colours; we hosted our first ever Rainbow Happy Hour, where we showed Brazil’s UN Free and Equal material – and took awesome pictures; did a big media campaign, which included our staff photo in a big news site and praise for the flag initiative.

We remain committed to promoting Human Rights and both our countries have very good policies. It is a frequently polemic issue – the main challenge ahead is making sure we can promote equality while respecting freedom of speech, faith and sovereignty. But as I stated at the beginning, Human Rights are universal and they should apply to us all.