Brazil’s gay couples exchange vows in collective ceremony

Two women celebrate after getting married in a group marriage of forty same sex couples in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2018. With the election of ultra-rightist Jair Bolsonaro as president, hundreds of same sex couples began to marry, fearing that the administration of Bolsonaro, who accumulates a history of homophobic and derogatory comments towards gays, could hinder the union of people of the same sex.  (AP Photo/Nelson Antoine)
Two women celebrate after getting married in a group marriage of forty same sex couples in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2018. With the election of ultra-rightist Jair Bolsonaro as president, hundreds of same sex couples began to marry, fearing that the administration of Bolsonaro, who accumulates a history of homophobic and derogatory comments towards gays, could hinder the union of people of the same sex. (AP Photo/Nelson Antoine)

SAO PAULO (AP) — About 40 gay couples got married Saturday in downtown Sao Paulo, tying the knot partly out of fear the new administration of President-elect Jair Bolsonaro could restrict same sex marriage.

Although his campaign did not express views against gay marriage, Bolsonaro’s record of homophobic comments has caused alarm.

In an interview with Playboy magazine in December 2011, he said he “would be incapable of loving a homosexual son.”

In May 2002, he also threatened gay people, saying if he saw “two men kissing each other on the street” he would “beat them up.”

On Saturday, dozens of people exchanged vows during a collective ceremony held at Casa 1, an NGO that provides support to disadvantaged LGBT youth.

Casa 1 launched a campaign a few weeks ago to hold the ceremony “in the face of the political situation” and raised almost $12,000 to cover expenses.

“It’s our way of raising the flag for our rights in this new setting,” NGO member Lais Risatto said.

Luana Hansen, 37, got married to Glaucia Figueiredo, 29, in response to the perceived threat.

“We’re combining our desire to love with our desire for revolution,” she said. “We don’t know what Bolsonaro may do.”

Future Human Rights Minister Damares Alves, a 54-year-old evangelical minister, told the O Globo newspaper in an interview Dec. 6 homosexual marriage is an “achieved right that is no longer up for debate.”

Gay marriage has been legal in Brazil since May 2013.

Bolsonaro takes office Jan. 1.