After attack on gay couple, AM collective reinforces creation of LGBTQIA+ State Council

LGBT flag, symbol that is used to represent the community (Promotion/Internet)

September 15, 2021

05:09

Gabriel Abreu – from Cenarium

MANAUS – After an attack on the gay couple Emanuel Medeiros Marinho de Almeida and Jonas Nogueira Junior during the early hours of last weekend, the Manifesta LGBT+ Association of Manaus asked, on Tuesday, 14, at a press conference held in front of the General Civil Police Station (DGPC) building, in the Dom Pedro neighborhood, Midwest zone, the homologation of the State LGBTQIA+ Council.

According to the president of the LGBT+ Association, Karen Arruda, the initiative that should come from the Government of Amazonas can develop public policies in order to prevent new homophobic attacks. “We are asking, as an association, for a position from the government, because for some years it has been promising a council. Many things have already been done, all that’s left is to ratify it”, he commented initially.

“Many people have already been chosen and appointed, they just need to make it official, but there’s no way that people who are not LGBTQ, who don’t understand our reality, our peculiarities, can make public policies for us. We need to be there”, detailed Arruda, about the composition of the State Council.

Data from the Brazilian Public Safety Forum show that, on average, four cases of violence against the population are registered daily, an increase of “more than 20%”. (Reproduction/ Internet)

The violence

Emanuel Medeiros and his husband Jonas Júnior are members of the Manifesta LGBT+ Association and were assaulted in the early hours of Friday to Saturday, 10, by an as yet unidentified man, while they were at the Eldorado Square, in Eldorado neighborhood, south-central zone of Manaus. Both were shot and Emanuel was hit in the shoulder. Jonas, on the other hand, had his lung punctured and his underarm injured.

Besides the injuries, Jonas also suffered bleeding and is still hospitalized. His health condition is stable. According to president Karen Arruda, the LGBT+ Association is providing Emanuel with full support and has made a lawyer available to follow the whole case, so that the suspect does not go unpunished.

“The Civil Police is giving us all the support in the investigations throughout the process so that it can be solved in the best and fastest way possible. And that soon the advisory of PC-AM will speak up for further clarification”, added Arruda.

The Amazonas Collective seeks consolidation of LGBTQIA+ rights in the state (Reproduction/Internet)

Violence

The 15th edition of the yearbook produced by the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety indicated that there were 1,169 cases of malicious bodily injury (+21%), 121 cases of homicide (+25%), and 88 notifications of rapes (+20%) against LGBTQIA+ people in 2020.

Seven Brazilian states reported having no recent figures for violent crimes against the LGBTQIA+ population. In the states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul, Maranhão, Ceará, Rondônia, and Rio Grande do Sul, information was not available between 2019 and 2020.

In 2020, an unprecedented research by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the Primary Health Care and Health Surveillance secretariats of the Ministry of Health (MS), the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS) and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), with data from the Unified Health System (SUS), showed that every hour an LGBT person is assaulted in Brazil.

Between 2015 and 2017, when the data was analyzed, 24,564 notifications of violence against this population were recorded, which results in an average of more than 22 notifications per day, that is, almost one notification every hour.

The report contacted the Civil Police of Amazonas (PC-AM) to learn more information about the aggression against the LGBTQIA+ couple, but the office reported that the case was referred to the 23rd Integrated Police District (DIP), which should investigate and that more information could not be passed on.