Evangelical Congressman in Brazil aims to defang the anti-racism law

The proposal would allow religious leaders to be exempt from legal accountability for racist, homophobic, or other bigoted remarks.

By Roberta Rocinante

Congressman Pastor Marco Feliciano (PL) has proposed a new bill that aims to allow religious leaders to make racist remarks during their speeches, sermons, and in any other religious ceremonies. This would work as an exception in the “Lei do Racismo” (Law on Racism), the anti racism law that criminalizes racist speech in Brazil.

This same law is the basis for the criminalization of homophobia, meaning that religious leaders would be able to also have homophobic remarks in their sermons.

This would allow any religious leader to spread racism and homophobia via any means of communication, such as TV and the internet.

It would also allow them to make such remarks in any public event with the excuse that it is protected speech under the law, essentially exempting them from being prosecuted under the law.

The reason for this bill is mostly likely to protect Evangelical Pastor André Valadão, who in the last few years has been sued and prosecuted under the law for his numerous racist and homophobic comments during his sermons.

Marco Feliciano, who’s also Evangelical, is likely trying to protect not only Valadão and himself, but other pastors facing the same issue.

However, this isn’t the only case of Marco Feliciano trying to disrupt and end the rights and protections of Brazilians.

Just this year, he voted against the legislation that would forbid child marriages – meaning any wedding where one of the spouses is under sixteen years old, the age of consent in Brazil – and he voted in favor of a project that would make it more difficult for children who were victims of sexual assault to get abortions.

It’s also of note that Marco Feliciano is not voting alone in the refusal or support of these laws. He and the rest of the Evangelical political class of Brazil consistently vote together to stop progress in the country, and to make things harder for people, all the while consolidating more power to his so-called faith.

These are still bills though, which means that they won’t necessarily become laws. They first need to be approved in the Senate - which might rule against these laws - but this still marks another attack to the marginalized and the vulnerable by the right.