BRASILIA - Hon. Jean Wyllys, the only openly gay Brazilian MP, who had incidentally just been re-elected, announced that he is leaving politics because of threats to his life. Having now left Brazil, the Socialist MP (PSOL) also claims that he will not yet return to his country for the same reasons.
Opposition to ultra-conservative recently elected President Jair Bolsonaro, Hon. Wyllys was placed under police escort after the assassination of his PSOL comrade, the late Hon. Rio Marielle Franco, who was also a member of the LGBTQI community and outspoken activist against homophobia. Announcing that he wants to avoid the same fate, he has decided to leave the country, but intends to eventually return to continue to fight against ultra-conservatism once the current violent environment has passed.
Having collaborated with EPF in the past, most notably as a participant at IPCI 2014 in Stockholm, the sinister reasoning for Hon. Wyllys’s withdrawal comes as concerning news and a reminder as we enter the 25th year since ICPD Cairo that the backlash against sexual and reproductive rights poses a real threat to social freedoms and should not be taken lightly.
