The member of parliament who chose to live
He did not want to be a martyr, he wanted to live: in 2019, Brazil's first openly gay member of parliament fled death threats.
On 24 January 2019, Brazil learned from the newspaper that one of its best-known parliamentarians would not be returning. Jean Wyllys, the country's first federal deputy to live openly as a gay man and to make queer rights his political programme, said in an interview with "Folha de S. Paulo" that he was abroad. He would not take up his seat. He had been elected for the third time only in October.
Wyllys had become known nationwide as the winner of the reality show "Big Brother Brasil". Afterwards, the journalist and lecturer moved into politics and entered the Chamber of Deputies for the left-wing party PSOL from Rio de Janeiro. There he campaigned for marriage equality, against homophobia and for the rights of trans people. And he made enemies.
The threats began during his first term. Later came smear campaigns on social media that falsely linked him to paedophilia. March 2018 became the turning point. In Rio, city councillor Marielle Franco was shot dead, a Black human rights activist and close companion of Wyllys. From then on, he only moved around with bodyguards. How was he supposed to spend four years of his life in an armoured car, he later asked.
At the same time, the political climate was tipping. At the beginning of January, Jair Bolsonaro had taken office as president, a politician who had spoken disparagingly about homosexuals for years and with whom Wyllys had repeatedly clashed fiercely in parliament.
Wyllys explained his decision soberly. He did not want to be a martyr. He wanted to live. Preserving a threatened life, he wrote on Twitter, was also a strategy in the struggle for better days. His seat was taken by David Miranda, also an openly gay politician. Wyllys himself went to Berlin.
His departure made visible internationally the price that queer political engagement can carry in Brazil.