Brazil’s out presidential candidate doesn’t think he “needs to be an activist” for LGBTQ rights

Eduardo Leite, Governor of Rio Grande do Sul
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Eduardo Leite, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul is considered a top contender to Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro in the next election, despite coming out as a gay man earlier this summer.

Leite offers a notable contrast to Bolsonaro, an anti-LGBTQ zealot known for becoming a global aspirational figure for the far-right. Yet, he recently made clear that he does not consider LGBTQ equality a cause important to him.

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Leite, a member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (BSDP), is trying to position himself as a centrist alternative to Bolsonaro’s ultra-conservative agenda and previous president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, considered the leader of the left.

Long before his decision to run for Brazil’s top office, Leite told Bloomberg, he was motivated to come out “before being accused of making a political calculation.” He even asked his partner to come out to his family ahead of his own public coming out, “so that people would fully know who they were supporting, and not get surprised out of nowhere along the way.”

“In Brazil nowadays, unfortunately, this [homosexuality] is one theme to discredit people, especially because of the way that Bolsonaro talks about it,” he said.

Still, Leite is not trying to make LGBTQ rights his top policy priority on the campaign trail.

He believes “the correct direction for the country is…

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