RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Marcelo Macedo dos Santos, a 33-year-old who survived an attempted homophobic homicide after being shot four times in the city of Camaçari, in the metropolitan area of Bahia’s capital Salvador, says he’s afraid to leave home after the attack.
Marcelo was shot in the arm and abdomen after kissing a man in a bar where he was with friends, on October 20th. As a result of the shots, he lost his spleen, had a perforated lung, and almost made it into the statistics of homophobic deaths in Brazil.
This year alone, 23 people have been killed in Bahia State by homophobic attacks, according to Marcelo Cerqueira, president of Grupo Gay da Bahia (“Bahia Gay Group”). The Secretary of Public Safety does not differentiate crimes of homophobia in criminal records.
Marcelo says that, little by little, he is recovering physically, but that he takes two different medications to ease the severe bodily pain. “I underwent surgery to remove the spleen, used a drain and probe. But the worst is fear, for me, for my family. Fear of what may happen”.
His greatest fear is knowing that the three attackers, one of whom is a state police officer, are free. The trio appeared before the 18th precinct in Camaçari, was interviewed and released. Detective inspector Thais Siqueira, who is in charge of the case, has said that she will only speak after the investigation is completed. The reporter was unable to reach the suspects.
To overcome the trauma, Marcelo has relied on the support of family and friends, who held a public rally in the city to demand speed in the investigation.
From what little he remembers of that night, Marcelo tells us that it all began after an exchange of kisses, followed by caresses on the arm of the then flirting partner, who became his boyfriend after the event. One of the attackers got up from the table where he was to challenge Marcelo on the gesture.
“He came towards me, asked if I wasn’t ashamed of myself because the bar was ‘full of parents’,” said the victim of the moments that preceded the physical assaults first, then the shooting.
“We were not doing anything explicit. They also kissed the girls who were with them. It’s the same thing”.
After being challenged, he says he got up, which made the other two assailants leave the table to beat him up together with a third man. “Then I couldn’t think of anything else, except that I was going to die. I tried to get up after being shot, but I couldn’t”.
Marcelo was rushed to the General Hospital of Camaçari, where he remained hospitalized until last Saturday. He wrote a message from the health unit on social media, which was shared across the country and exceeded 3,300 comments.
“I would never have imagined that a simple kiss would lead to so much hatred in the heart of a person who calls himself a human being,” he lamented. “I never thought that a police officer, who is supposed to protect us, would do such a thing”.
For the president of the Bahia Gay Group, Marcelo Cerqueira, crimes like these reflect the chauvinistic mindset of men who believe they are superior to people who are different from them, whether they are women or LGBTQI+ people.
In his opinion, the case gained such resonance due to the brutality of the attackers before a public demonstration of affection that they did not accept.
“The root of all homophobia lies in male chauvinism still imbued in society, where men believe themselves superior to women, to LGBT people, because they feel that these demonstrations of affection are an affront to their masculinity,” said Cerqueira.
Source: Folhapress