Brazilian gαy Groups Launch Multiple Lawsuits to Silence Christian Opposition
Flurry of Lawsuits is Attempt to Prevent Criticism of ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ Movement

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

BRAZIL, August 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com)--In recent weeks, ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ groups in Brazil have attempted to silence their opponents with a flurry of lawsuits that take advantage of Brazil's pro-gαy political climate.

On August 5th, the Brazilian Association of gαys, Lesbians, BisɛҳuąƖs, and Transgender People (ABGLT) filed a criminal complaint against several websites for exposing the fact that the leader of Brazil's ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ movement, Luiz Mott, is a promoter of pedophilia and pederasty (see LifeSiteNews' recent coverage at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jul/07073011.html).

The sites, Media Without a Mask, the Christian Apologetics Research Center, and Jesussite, are accused of "charlatanism, infamy, defamation, and calumny", for having quoted Mott's numerous statements endorsing sex with children and adolescents.  The Association is asking for criminal prosecution as well as monetary damages.

In the last week, the Association has also filed a motion against Rozangela Alves Justino, a Brazilian psychologist who offers therapy to ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖs who wish to change their orientation. Brazil's Federal Council of Psychologists has ruled that psychologists are prohibited from doing reparative therapy for ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity, and ABGLT is asking that Alves Justino's license be revoked.

The organization complains that Rozangela is "an adversary of the gαy, lesbian, bisɛҳuąƖ, transvestite and transsɛҳuąƖ movement, and has distinguished herself on the national scene for supporting and carrying out programs of 'reversal' and/or 'rescue' from ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity to heterosɛҳuąƖity."

It has also recently requested an investigation of Silas Malafaia, a famous Brazilian psychologist and minister, for remarks he made on a TV program opposing ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ behavior, abortion, and fetal stem cell research.  According to the Brazilian ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ website gαy1.com, Malfaia "addresses ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity and the struggle of ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖs for equal rights in a clearly discriminatory manner." It asks that prosecutors determine measures that can be taken against Malafaia and the TV stations that broadcasted the program.

Dr. Olavo de Carvalho, who edits Media Without a Mask and who writes opinion columns for Brazilian newspapers, says that the suits are an attempt to indimidate the opponents of the ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ movement in Brazil, and to attract attention away from a criminal investigation against Mott and other ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ leaders for advocating child molestation and pederasty.

Carvalho told LifeSiteNews that he sees the ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ movement's quest for power as a subset of the larger socialist movement in Brazil, which is seeking more and more power: "I believe they really want lots of power because the ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ movement is not independent.  It is part of the leftist machine.  And the left now in Brazil has almost total power.  They control everything.  They are more powerful than the Brazilian state itself, and this is not enough for them.  They want more and more and more and more, and the ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ movement is a tool of this strategy."

Although a law has been proposed to prohibit criticism of ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity, it has not yet passed.  Nonetheless, many Brazilian judges simply act as if such a prohibition already exists.  "They are proceeding as if the law existed...They want to force the parliament to approve the law , so they act as if the law were approved already.  Many Brazilians believe that this law actually exists.  It's a kind of psychological fraud," said Carvalho.

Brazilian ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖs have scored victories in the past with this strategy.  Father Luiz Carlos Lodi da Cruz, president of the Pro-life Association of Anapolis, Brazil, was ordered to pay a fine of US$ 3,000 in 2005 for calling the pro-abortion anthropologist Debora Diniz Rodrigues "pro-abortion".  The label was deemed "offensive" by the presiding judge.  The decision was upheld on appeal.

In June of this year a coalition of protestant church groups, the National Vision for a Christian Conscience (VINACC), was ordered to stop their campaign to defend family values against ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ activism.  They were ordered to remove billboards and internet announcements of their campaign, and to cancel a public event they had scheduled, because, according to the court, their campaign was "homophobic".

However, not all attempts to intimidate and silence opponents of ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ behavior have been successful.  

On May 29th of this year, a Lutheran pastor in the Brazilian town of Rancho Queimado; the Rev. Ademir Kreutzfeld, was subject to a criminal investigation when he was accused of calling local businesses in an effort to inform them that a newspaper they were sponsoring was promoting the ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ agenda. The ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ activist who owns the paper filed charges against the pastor for "defamation".  However, on August 29th, Kreutzfeld joyfully announced that after an brief hearing that was "conducted well" by the judge, the complainant had dropped the charges.

Dr. Olavo de Carvalho observes that in the current political climate, such decisions can go either way, depending entirely on the philosophy of the judge that is chosen.  "It's impossible to predict these things because everything depends on which judge will judge your complaint, and this is unpredictable because the selection of the judge is made at random...we never know....anything can happen," he said.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07083007.html