GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today called on the American Museum of Natural History to immediately cancel an upcoming event featuring Brazilian President and notorious anti-LGBTQ activist Jair Bolsonaro that’s to be held on the museum grounds. According to The Gothamist, the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce plans to hold a gala event to name Bolsonaro its “Person of the Year” at the Museum.

“It’s dangerous for a respected attraction like the American Museum of Natural History to provide a national platform for a foreign leader who is known for targeting and attacking marginalized communities, especially LGBTQ people,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “Parents and current members of the Museum like me should not stand idly by while the Museum grants visibility to someone who supports the assault of young children just for potentially being LGBTQ. The Museum should re-examine serving as the home for Bolsonaro’s honor, and instead, send a message to LGBTQ Brazilians as well as its LGBTQ members by canceling the event.”

Brazilian President has a horrific and barbaric anti-LGBTQ record, and since his election last year, President Bolsonaro – like the Trump Administration – has systematically tried to eraseLGBTQ families from the fabric of Brazil. Just recently, President Bolsonaro even praised the anti-LGBTQ efforts made by President Trump and his administration since taking office in 2017 – a total of 103 attacks on LGBTQ Americans overall.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Anti-LGBTQ History of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro

• Said he’d prefer his son die in an accident than be gay (Rough translation: “There are certain things that I say are as death. It would bring me disgust, would make me sad, and I even think that he, himself, would abandon me in that case. To me, it is death. And more: I’d rather he died in an accident than show up with some guy. To me, he really would have died.” Original interview, in Portuguese, can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20110709235317/http://playboy.abril.com.br/entretenimento/entrevista/jair-bolsonaro/
• Reiterated his preference for a dead son over a gay son: “I prefer, rather, a son run over by a convoy to a homosexual son. If my son were “gay,” he would be dead to me.”
• Supported a father who beat his 8-year-old son to death for showing effeminate traits, suggesting that beating the child would have prevented him from being gay.
• Has bragged that “if I see two men kissing on the street, I’m going to hit them.” 
• Said: “If a gay couple came to live in my building, my property will lose value. If they walk around holding hands, kissing, it will lose value! No one says that out of fear of being pinned as homophobe.”
• Claimed LGBT rights activists wants to recruit children for sex: “They want to reach our children in order to turn the children into gay adults to satisfy their sexuality in the future. So these are the fundamentalist homosexual groups that are trying to take over society.”
• Said being gay is a “behavioral issue” inspired by “liberal habits” “drugs” and “women also working,” adding that is a young person starts hanging out with certain people with a certain behavior, he’ll adopt that sort of behavior. He’ll think it’s normal”.https://lab.org.uk/ellen-page-confronts-jair-bolsonaro-about-homophobia-in-rio-de-janeiro/
• Referred to a rival political party as “a party of dicks and faggots”.
• Implied that President Dilma Rousseff is a lesbian, demanding that she “admit your love with homosexuals”.
• Called Eleonora Menicucci, the Minister for Women’s Policy, “a big dyke”.
• Said he’d “rather have a son who is an addict than a son who is gay”.
• Said he does not have a gay child because his children are well educated.
• Insisted gay parents sexually abuse their children: “I make a connection between homosexuality and pedophilia because many of the children who will be adopted by “gay” couples will be abused by these homosexual couples.”
• Wanted to rid textbooks of homosexuality.
• Removed LGBTQ rights from human rights ministry considerations just hours after inauguration.
• Said: “If your son begins to act like this, sort of gay, he deserves a smack and he’ll change his behavior”.