Mon Aug 28, 2023 – 4:36 pm EDT
(LifeSiteNews) — Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that “homophobic” comments are now punishable by two to five years in prison.
The court’s 9-1 decision establishes homophobic hate speech as equivalent to racist hate speech, which had already carried sentences of prison time and fines.
While the court had previously deemed homophobia to be a crime similar to racism in 2019, that ruling only applied to slurs against the LGBTQ+ community as a whole, not to “attacks” on individuals, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the French international news service.
“The interpretation that restricts its application to cases of racism” leaving unprotected individuals from the LGBTQIAPN+ community “goes against not only the appealed judgment but the entire constitutional system,” argued Justice Edson Fachin, lead judge on the case.
Brazil also already had on its books laws providing hate speech protections to HIV-positive individuals. Incursions are punishable by one to four years in prison.
“Such a decision brings legal certainty and reinforces the court’s understanding with regard to the principle of equality and nondiscrimination,” said the National LGBTI+ Alliance, a Brazilian LGBTQ and intersex rights group, according to a Washington Blade report.
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