Brazilian voters on Sunday elected
far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro as their next president.
Bolsonaro, who will be sworn in on
January 1, defeated former Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad in a
runoff election held Sunday.
Bolsonaro, 63, has represented the
state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies since 1991
and is a member of the Social Liberal Party (PSL), a
national-conservative political party.
During his nearly three decades as a
congressman, Bolsonaro has openly criticized LGBT rights. “Yes,
I'm homophobic – and very proud of it,” he once said.
In a 2013 interview with British
television personality Stephen Fry, Bolsonaro said that “Brazilian
society doesn't like homosexuals” and claimed that gays were
brainwashing heterosexual children to “become gays and lesbians to
satisfy them sexually in the future.”
In 2011, he stated that he would
“rather his son dies in a car accident than be gay,” and two
years later he stated that he would “rather have a son who is an
addict than a son who is gay.”
Right-wing media cheered Bolsonaro's
win, including Fox News (Rob
Schmitt said on Fox and Friends that Brazilians got “change”
with “the Trump of the tropics”) and The Daily Caller
(Jason Hopkins praised Bolsonaro's tough stance on crime and economic
reforms). Others said that Bolsonaro and President Donald Trump
shared similar positions which would lead to a mutually beneficial
relationship between the two countries.
Trump called Bolsonaro to congratulate
him on his victory.