Jair Bolsonaro wants Brazil to 'fight' COVID-19, says stop being a 'country of fags'

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro received widespread backlash for a new set of ‘derogatory’ homophobic remarks as he urged people to not deal with COVID-19 pandemic like "a country of fags.” The far-right leader, who has already denoted the novel coronavirus infection as a “little flu” before being diagnosed with COVID-19 and downplayed its severity, said on November 10 that these days everyone keeps talking about the global health crisis. While the COVID-19 death toll in Brazil is 162,802 as per Johns Hopkins University tally, Bolsonaro urged Brazilians to stop talking only about the pandemic.

Acknowledging that he ‘regrets’ the deaths that have been caused by the novel virus, Bolsonaro goes on to say that everybody is eventually going to die and thus, Brazil has to stop being the country of “fags”. He urged people to face the health crisis and put up a fight and said, “I hate this faggot stuff.” These are the latest controversial statements that Bolsonaro addressed the public with after previously denouncing the “hysteria” around the pandemic. 

“All anyone talks about these days is the pandemic. We need to stop that,” said Bolsonaro during the speech, which was seemingly on tourism.

“I regret the deaths. I really do. But we're all going to die someday. There's no use fleeing reality. We have to stop being a country of fags...We have to face up to it and fight. I hate this faggot stuff.”

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Between ‘gunpowder’ and ‘fags’, people died

Amid thousands of people who condemned Brazilian President’s remarks was the speaker of the lower house of Congress, Rodrigo Maia who took to Twitter to say that between ‘gunpowder’ and ‘fags’ more than 160,000 people have lost their lives. From crippling economy to other challenges budded from the COVID-19 pandemic, Maia listed them and on behalf of the Chamber of Deputies, offered condolences to the people who died while reaffirming the commitment to the vaccine. 

Maia said, “Between gunpowder, sissies and the risk of hyperinflation, we have more than 160 thousand dead in the country, a fragile economy and a state in the dark. On behalf of the Chamber of Deputies, I reaffirm our commitment to the vaccine, the independence of regulatory bodies and fiscal responsibility.”

“And to all relatives and friends of victims of the covid-19 our solidarity,” he added.

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