Woman shoves anti-gay priest off stage mid-service
The woman snuck past security and ran at the anti-gay priest. (YouTube)
A woman snuck past security and pushed an anti-gay priest off a stage in the middle of a service in in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
According to HuffPost Brasil the 32-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, was restrained by police and taken to a station. It is unclear why the woman pushed him, but according to O Dia journalist Fabia Oliveira she just wanted to talk to him.
Priest Marcelo Rossi has made many statements reported by Brazilian media relating to LGBT+ people.
The majority of Brazil’s population is Roman Catholic and Rossi is one of the country’s most famous priests.
According to Um Outro Olhar he said that “the word of God was clear that man and woman were created to unite and bear fruit.”
The Christian Science Monitor reported that he said on Brazilian TV: “A lot of ideas will change the day homosexuality is proven to be an illness.”
The incident was broadcast on TV on Sunday, July 14, and happened in front of an audience of 50,000 people.
After he was pushed, Rossi said: “Don’t worry, I’m fine, just some mild pain. That’s normal, nothing’s broken. Amen.”
Brazil’s current president Jair Bolsonaro has previously claimed he would rather his son were dead than gay and calls himself a “proud homophobe.”
He told Playboy: “I would be incapable of loving a gay son. I prefer that he die in an accident.”
President Jair Bolsonaro took office in Brazil on January 1, 2019. (Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty)
Bolsonaro has also said that if he saw two men kissing in public he would punch them, and compared accepting gay people to respecting “the paedophile’s right to have sex with a two-year-old.”
Last month, Brazil’s football federation was fined over homophobic chanting by fans during a match.
