RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After the Rio de Janeiro City Hall sent inspectors to the Book Biennial on Friday, September 6th, in search of pornographic and LGBT-themed books, YouTuber Felipe Neto decided to sponsor a performance at the event this Saturday. He bought over 10,000 LGBT-themed books and will distribute them for free.
The distribution will take place at noon, in the food court. Among the titles chosen are “Two Boys Kissing”, by David Levithan (Galera); “Workin’ It!”, by RuPaul (HarperCollins); “Boy Erased”, by Garrard Conley (Intrínseca); and “Ninguém Nasce Herói” (“No One is Born A Hero”), by Eric Novello (Seguinte).
This is after the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Marcelo Crivella, announced on his Twitter on Thursday night, September 5th, that he would censor the comic book “Vingadores – A Cruzada das Crianças” (“Avengers – The Children’s Crusade”), which was being sold at the Biennale. The comic book features two men kissing each other, which Crivella considers pornography, thus infringing provisions of the Child and Adolescent Statute.
Rio’s city government has extra judicially notified the Biennale, not asking for the books to be confiscated, but rather stating that they should be sealed and come with an indication or warning of material or scenes that are unsuitable for minors.
For this reason, the 10,000 donated books will be delivered inside a black bag, along with a note that reads: “this book is unfit for backward, retrograde and prejudiced people”.
The YouTuber will not make the deliveries personally, leaving it up to members of his team and other organizers of the performance.