40 Gay Couples Stage Mass Wedding to Protest Brazilian President-Elect

40 gay couples have gathered in Sao Paulo in Brazil to stage a mass wedding in protest of Jair Bolsanaro, the president-elect.

While same-sex marriage has been legal in the country since 2013, many fear the openly homophobic Bolsanaro will rollback LGBT+ rights once he’s elected.

Bolsonaro has a long history of anti-gay, sexist and racist rhetoric.

In 2015 he said patients in hospital had a right to reject blood from gay people. He also told TIME last month that he would punch two men in the street if he saw them kissing.

“I do not kiss my wife on the street. Why face society? Why take that into the school? Little children of 6 or 7, watching two men kiss as the government wanted them to do. Is this democracy?”

He also equated homosexuality to paedophilia, “So let’s respect the paedophile’s right to have sex with a two-year-old? Would that unite [Brazil]?”

In a 2011 interview with Playboy Bolsonarosaid he said, “I would be incapable of loving a gay son. I prefer that he die in an accident.”

He reiterated his views in a 2013 interview with Stephen Fry, “No father would ever take pride in having a gay son… Pride? Happiness? Celebrate if his son turns out gay? No way.”

“Look, you have to have some sort of moral compass bearing in your life. They want to reach our children in order to turn the children into gay adults to satisfy their sexuality in the future.

“So, these are the fundamentalist homosexual groups that are trying to take over society.”