Amid Threats to LGBT Brazilians, These Trans Singers Are Taking Center Stage
Amid Threats to LGBT Brazilians, These Trans Singers Are Taking Center Stage
Reports of anti-LGBT hate crimes in Brazil reached new highs in 2016, but performers like As Bahias e a Cozinha Mineira are undeterred.
It’s one thing to perform for hundreds of spectators at Salvador, Brazil's world-famous carnaval. It’s quite another to take the stage as a transgender woman in a region that has become a focal point of rising violence against Brazil's LGBT community.
That reality wasn’t lost on trans musicians Assucena Assucena and Raquel Virgínia as they performed in February's carnaval in Pelourinho, Salvador’s historic center.
“What we did in Pelourinho is what every artist does – go out and sing," Assucena told AQ. "But we know what being trans and a political...
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