LGBT “Beijaço” (Kiss-In) - A demonstration to afirm women and LGBT rights

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26)

“And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these".  (Mark 12:31)

Against both statements, the church has discriminated a significant part of the population for being who they are (women, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and transgender) or for intend to have full autonomy over their bodies (use of birth control pills or condoms, abortions) or over their lives (sex before marriage, divorce), amongst other conducts condemned by the Catholic Church.

The Church, more than just a religious institution, is a political force, which power influences not only hearts and minds, but governments around the world, as well. When a religious leader excommunicate a 9 years old girl for having an abortion, impregnated because of three years of sexual abuse by her father, he is not only blaming the victim for the outrageous violence she suffered, but also adding to that unbearable pain moral and psychological violence. It was also the head of this institution, last year, when he was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, that came to the public not only to condemn homosexual relationships and transgender people, but to state that they are the evil of humanity, the human being deviation and a threat to future.

Those declarations and public actions cannot be treated lightly. It’s not about freedom of speech or freedom of religion. An institution of this magnitude in terms of political power and visibility influences the way of many people in the globe see us, the LGBT population.

While condemning actions or lifestyles, the Catholic Church marginalizes our bodies and sexualities, strengthening and legitimizing all sort of violations on us. If the issue were the public exhortation of sins doomed in the Bible, where is the excommunication for rapists and women’s murderers?! Where is the public reprove of the brazilian Military Police which systematically massacres the African-descendant youth and exactly 20 years ago brutally killed eight children in an episode known as Chacina da Candelária?! And yes, that happened literally at the door of the Candelária Church! The point here is not the condemnation of a sin but the downgrading of all those bodies, genders, sexualities and choices that confront the heterosexual normativity and the sexist-conservative thinking.

When the Catholic Church refuses to dialogue about those issues, but at the same time, interferes in a political public debate, it undermines the Secular State, authorizing Human Rights violations. The “Beijaço” is a demonstration in order to protest against those damages, claiming the principle of love thy neighbour. It does not matter the gender identity or sexual orientation, the aim is to show that we exist.

In a world where a kiss can be considered disrespectful, we must to kiss!!!

So, for the kindness of your hearts or by the power of our revolt, take your rosaries out of our ovaries, out of my promiscuous hot body, out of my homo-affective relationship, out of my silicon breasts, out of my transformed body, out of my enhanced body!!!

Take your saints images out my drums, take your exorcism out of my Orishas, take your whiteness out of my black skin slaved by you! Take your chaplet out of me, take out your sin, your cross. Keep it in your church – there, insid the magnificent buildings raised on slavery and centuries of servitude.