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Jair Bolsonaro tweeted a video of carnival, using it to defame the festival and to once again diminish the LGBT community. Many are now calling for his impeachment.
Brazil’s carnival (carnaval in Portuguese), one of the biggest street festivals in the world, is known for its uniquely lavish celebration. This year became known for protests against the country’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro while also paying homage to wrongly imprisoned former President Lula da Silva and murdered activist Marielle Franco.
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The criticism Bolsonaro got did not sit well with the president. He lashed out at the celebrations by posting a sexually explicit video to discredit them.
His tweet was then criticized widely by people slamming him for posting what many interpreted as hate speech against the LGBT community.
Many also believed it to be a way for Bolsonaro to delegitimize protests against him. The multitude of Brazilians tweeting against him created a worldwide trend on the platform under a hashtag calling for Bolsonaro’s impeachment after his outrageous tweet. Some called it pornographic, while others called it a debasement of the office of the president.
Okay so reading up on #ImpeachmentBolsonaro -
— ��Scrub�� (@Scrubbenyan) March 6, 2019
For those who don't speak Portuguese, essentially what happened is that Bolsonaro posted a pornographic video in an attempt to denounce Carnival and the LGBT+ community, which is impeachable for acting against dignity of office.(1/2)
The video shows three people dancing on a rooftop and culminates with one man urinating on another.
Bolsonaro tweeted the video saying he had to "expose the truth so the people are aware of their priorities."
"This is what Brazilian carnival street parties have turned into," he said.
Não me sinto confortável em mostrar, mas temos que expor a verdade para a população ter conhecimento e sempre tomar suas prioridades. É isto que tem virado muitos blocos de rua no carnaval brasileiro. Comentem e tirem suas conslusões: pic.twitter.com/u0qbPu9sie
— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) March 5, 2019
Brazilians lashed out against the tweet while referring to the video as a “golden shower”scene, to which Bolsonaro replied, “What is a golden shower?”
One commenter noted that the Brazilian president chose to ignore the beautiful, creative spirit of Carnaval. Brazilian TV presenter Astrid Fontenelle wrote on Twitter, "I saw so many beautiful things this carnival. Then I see this on Twitter from the president of our republic who many children follow?"
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