An interview with Brazil's first openly gay senator, Fabiano Contarato

In 2018, Fabiano Contarato became the first openly gay man to be elected to the Brazilian Senate. The 52-year-old senator, who represents the state of Espírito Santo, was elected in the midst of a shift in Brazil’s political climate toward extremist and fundamentalist views; the president elected in 2018, Jair Bolsonaro, has consistently made racist and homophobic remarks and has been called “Trump of the Tropics.”

Since taking office on February 1, Contarato has made waves by trying to prevent Senator Angelo Coronel from extinguishing Brazil’s female party quota that guarantees 30 percent of political parties’ candidates are women — and was successful in doing so on April 24. Contarato wanted to not only keep the measure, started by former senator Marta Suplicy, in place, but also hopes to go a step further and raise the quota to 50 percent.

Contarato recently told The FBomb about his uphill battle to defend civil rights in a country with growing prejudicial views.

The FBomb: You are the first gay man elected to the Brazilian Senate. Can you tell us about how you achieved this and what your experience in the Senate has been like?

Fabiano Contarato: I was the officer of Internal Affairs and the director-general of the Department of Transportation in the state of Espírito Santo, and chief of police of the Traffic Police. Brazil is the fourth country in the world in traffic deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), but if a driver kills someone, according to Brazilian legislation, they are not arrested for even a day, regardless of being proven guilty. As the chief of police. I filed a lawsuit to create measures to prevent drunk drivers from continuing to drive. I have been increasingly proactive, lecturing at schools, universities, companies, to raise awareness of traffic safety and have come to be considered an authority on the traffic safety debate. It is due to this activism in favor of life and against violence in traffic, treating people as equals without distinction, that I gained credibility. I realized that I could do more in my struggle to perfect the Brazilian Traffic Code, but also do more for other aspects of our lives. I wanted to act more effectively in defense of minorities: the indigenous, black, poor, women, and LGBT. 

Upon arriving at the Federal Senate, I was welcomed by my peers, however, over the course of my life, I have suffered from prejudice. I am very "respected," but being "respected" has to do with my economic and social independence — because I  have been successful.  In the poor areas of Brazilian cities, we constantly see people being disrespected because of their sexual orientation.

Brazil is a relatively conservative country, but the election of President Jair Bolsonaro last year signaled a clear rise in fundamentalism. Why do you think this shift is happening right now?

In April of last year, the Brazilian press released an Ibope survey revealing that the proportion of the population with a high degree of conservatism grew from 49 percent in 2010 to 54 percent in 2016 and reached 55 percent in 2018. The index of conservatism grew well above average among college graduates and evangelicals.

Some hypotheses about the increase in conservatism included unemployment, corruption, and lack of and failures in health and public safety services. If we add that to the institutional crisis of politics, we see that people are being more conservative because they cling to a notion of security that they assume they have lived through before. The will to blame, to punish, to enforce justice occurs at the same time that social networks are expanding, and people reproduce their feelings on these networks. Finally, our problem is that there is a very great insensitivity towards the poorest Brazilians and minorities.

Brazil needs to invest a lot in education, health, and security. It needs to ensure the enforcement of individual and social rights already provided for in our Federal Constitution, which is the backbone of the democratic state of law. Here, in the Federal Senate, my struggle is for respect for human rights, for compliance with the Federal Constitution and the International Treaties and Agreements to which Brazil is a signatory.

You are opposing Senator Angelo Coronel's proposal to end the female quota in political parties that was started by former senator Marta Suplicy. In fact, you've even proposed raising the quota from 30 percent to 50 percent. Why is it important to not only keep this quota but also increase it?

It is important to reject Senator Angelo Colonel's bill because it is a step backward. To better understand this, we need to know our history: The female vote was won in Brazil in 1932, but the emancipation of women has still been extremely combated in Brazilian society. Until the 1960s, women in our country were considered practically incapable. Women still face immense difficulties in the market and a lot of wage inequality in comparison to men. 

In 1997, with Law 9504, a 30 percent quota for female candidacies in proportional representation elections (that is, for councilmen, state representatives, and federal representatives) was reserved, but the parties systematically disregarded this. In 2009, ahead of the 2010 general elections, there was great pressure from women, and thus we had a "mini-reform," and the wording of article 10 of the Electoral Law was changed to ensure that the quota was met. Even so, parties still circumvented this ruling, filling in less than 30 percent of the spots with women or putting women’s names to appear only on nameplates (as “stooges”). Just last year, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) recognized that the 30 percent quota for seats also applies to resources of the electoral fund (here in Brazil, elections are publicly funded, according to current rules) and of advertising time. In the last term, more women were elected to office.

Therefore, I voted against the proposal to abolish quotas, Furthermore, I presented a project that increases this quota to 50 percent. If we are all "equal" we must all have the same chances, the same access to participation and resources, but women, as we know, are being hampered. The fair thing to do in our current situation is to have parity, since women are 52 percent of the Brazilian population, and they have the right to this representation.

How do you think Brazilian politicians generally view and act on issues that affect LGBTQ folks and other marginalized groups in the country? 

The National Congress has never passed a federal law in favor of the LGBT population. In 2018, the movement celebrated 40 years of activism, but we have dozens of bills stuck in the closets of the legislative houses — like a bill criminalizing homophobia, a bill legalizing marriage equality, and bills that address health-related issues, such as ending the restriction on blood donation. The conservative environment does not even allow these projects to be put on the agenda, and they would not be passed if they were.

Last February, research commissioned by the NGO Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública (FBSP) to assess the impact of violence against women in Brazil found that in the last 12 months, 1.6 million women were beaten or suffered an attempt of strangulation in our country. 22 million (37.1 percent) of Brazilian women have already gone through some type of harassment. Among the cases of violence, 42 percent occurred in the domestic environment. More than half of the women who were assaulted (52 percent) did not report the aggressor or seek help.  

There are many issues, and I think our country needs to face its prejudices and enforce our Federal Constitution. I fight for this. I entered politics with this view that it is necessary to have the courage for this confrontation. I know it is not easy and, many times, I feel ashamed because the behavior of a good part of our congressmen is very disappointing.

What are the main things — whether legislation or other accomplishments — that you hope to accomplish while in office? 

I was elected with the firm purpose of combating impunity, of acting to reduce violence and social inequality. In just over two months of work in the Federal Senate, among the 17 bills I have presented, five deal with traffic. As I said before, if one person is drunk and kills or causes serious and permanent injury to another when driving, he or she does not spend a single day in prison, so my bills included stricter punishment in these cases. I already accomplished a victory in favor of the preservation of life, when the Judge of the Federal District ordered the maintenance of the installation of radars on federal highways, which had been suspended by the Federal Government.

I have also positioned myself firmly against making the carrying of weapons more flexible. Of the 17.5 million weapons in the hands of civilians in Brazil, more than 9 million are unregistered. On January 15, Decree No. 9685 made the criteria for possession in Brazil more flexible. A person may acquire up to four firearms of permitted use and even more if he or she presents valid justifications. With the rates of violence against women, against LGBT folks, and all of our social inequality, our proposals aren’t reducing violence. So, I have been seeking to exercise my mandate to serve the Brazilian population on broad issues and of national interest.

I was also elected by my peers to be the president of the Senate’s Committee on the Environment. We must promote more interest in the protection of life and the environment, and less in purely economic interests. We have serious debates going on: the issue of miners wanting to advance on indigenous lands; the tragedies that occurred in tailings dams; waste in uranium-mine tailings; global warming, and so on. There is a lot to do. We have a broad agenda in favor of a sustainable environment, which poses the challenge of improving environmental legislation.