The World’s Next Big Drag Queen Is Brazilian

 

  "In addition to being home to a crew of breakout drag stars, Brazil has adopted some of the world’s most expansive gay rights. Gay couples can marry and adopt children; transgender people can legally choose their gender; homophobic slurs are a crime; and so-called conversion therapy, which seeks to make gay people straight, is banned.

Yet for years Brazil has also ranked among the deadliest countries for gay and transgender people. Since 2008, more than 1,840 transgender people have been murdered in Brazil, more than double the next deadliest country, Mexico, according to tracking by Transgender Europe, an advocacy group. Brazil has led the rankings every year since tracking began.

“We never know when it will be my friend, when it will be my family, when it will be me,” Pabllo Vittar said in an interview. “This is the biggest goal of my career: To make it so younger people don’t feel this fear when they go out.”

Pabllo Vittar has emerged as one of Brazil’s loudest gay voices against a right-wing movement in the country, led by conservative Christian groups, that has made a heterosexual vision of gender, sex and marriage a central part of its political strategy."

 READ REPORT BY JACK NICAS