Protesters have taken to the street in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil, with a kissing protest against homophobic treatment of two women.
About 50 Brazilian protesters responded with kisses on Sunday at a bar that had kicked out a presumed lesbian couple for embracing in public. The management of the bar in the town of Ribeirao Preto said in a statement the women, ages 22 and 23, had been shown the door a week ago for “inappropriate behaviour.”
The women immediately filed a complaint with the police and a Brazilian lawyers’ association commission against homophobia.
At Sunday’s protests, youths carried signs denouncing homophobia and engaged in a “beijaco,” or collective kissing, as police looked on.
A bill to punish homophobia has been sidelined for years in the Brazilian Congress by resistance from Catholics and Protestant Evangelicals.
In 2011, however, the Supreme Court guaranteed same-sex couples in stable unions the same rights as heterosexual couples.