General elections in Brazil: a short guide for humanists
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In October 2014 Brazilians will vote and choose the next president, federal deputies and senators. Here is a summary of the state of affairs in the topics that humanists worry about. Leading polls as a presidential candidate now is Marina Silva (PSB, Brazilian Socialist Party), who comes from a poor background in the heart of the Amazon forest. Silva, who converted to Evangelicalism in the 1990s, says her conversion happened because of a miracle that doesn't sound too miraculous: she recalled the name of an experimental drug to treat the mercury poisoning she suffered from. Some supporters of the re-election of Dilma Rousseff (PT, Workers' Party) accuse Silva of being a fundamentalist. This is hard to argue for, since she can be seen saying "even" atheists can have good, moral lives, and also sounds hypocritical because Rousseff has failed in clearly defending a progressive agenda. But also hard to argue against, because Silva, after launching an excellent plan for LGBT rights, recanted large chunks of the plan 24 hours later, removing support to the criminalisation of anti-LGBT discrimination and hate speech, and insisting, despite the judiciary's decisions, on calling gay marriage a "civil union," as though the word "marriage" belonged solely to the religious. Silva's catch-all mantra about contentious human rights issues, from abortion to smoking weed, is that she will submit them to referenda.
General elections in Brazil: a short guide for humanists
General elections in Brazil: a short guide…
General elections in Brazil: a short guide for humanists
In October 2014 Brazilians will vote and choose the next president, federal deputies and senators. Here is a summary of the state of affairs in the topics that humanists worry about. Leading polls as a presidential candidate now is Marina Silva (PSB, Brazilian Socialist Party), who comes from a poor background in the heart of the Amazon forest. Silva, who converted to Evangelicalism in the 1990s, says her conversion happened because of a miracle that doesn't sound too miraculous: she recalled the name of an experimental drug to treat the mercury poisoning she suffered from. Some supporters of the re-election of Dilma Rousseff (PT, Workers' Party) accuse Silva of being a fundamentalist. This is hard to argue for, since she can be seen saying "even" atheists can have good, moral lives, and also sounds hypocritical because Rousseff has failed in clearly defending a progressive agenda. But also hard to argue against, because Silva, after launching an excellent plan for LGBT rights, recanted large chunks of the plan 24 hours later, removing support to the criminalisation of anti-LGBT discrimination and hate speech, and insisting, despite the judiciary's decisions, on calling gay marriage a "civil union," as though the word "marriage" belonged solely to the religious. Silva's catch-all mantra about contentious human rights issues, from abortion to smoking weed, is that she will submit them to referenda.