“Brazil is the country that kills more homosexuals and transsexuals in the world according to Amnesty International. Last year 445 people were killed because of homophobia. In a country where this type of crime is instigated and where there is not even a specific law to defend these cases of murder, a judicial decision was approved since last December allowing psychologists to claim the “gay cure” – or how they prefer to call it “sexual reversion”.  The controversial decision was massively criticised by real professionals from different areas. 30 years ago the World Health Organization recognized that homosexuality is not a disease and in 1999 the Federal Council of Psychology in Brazil decided that psychologists cannot use the gay cure. Now they claim that some people don’t accept their homosexuality and if they ask a psychologist to help them to reverse it, they are not allowed to do it. But the problem is much more complicated than that. It is obvious that no one ever decides to be homosexual and that there is no “reversion” to that. So the easiest way would be helping those people to accept themselves and not to be trying to change who they are. 

The gay cure is completely absurd and dishonest. Whoever tries to change it, will just cause more damage and emotional stress, because being gay is natural. Why would you sell the idea that you can change someone if there’s nothing to be changed? The only thing that can be cured is the oppression, the homophobia, the injustice, the prejudice, the impunity of those who replicate the hate crimes. The society in Brazil still oppresses the gay people so much that some of them just want to hide it and live a double life. The society also doesn’t realize that a homosexual suffers every single day in a country that supports it. Gay people are always living a tense life afraid of prejudice and hate. Luckily it is changing fast and this kind of conservatism is in general decreasing. The soap operas are helping with gay characters living normal lives. The representativeness also helps people that still are in the closet to come out and be themselves. The gay collectives are full of life and energy, fighting for equality and getting more space and respect. 

The only sickness is the prejudice and the evangelical parties that try in every way to meddle with the gay people’s lives.  It would be so much easier if each one of them just took care of their own life and accepted people just the way they are. There is nothing to be cured when there is no disease.”

This series is part of Pornceptual Magazine
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Photographer: Lucas Kaique Dias | Instagram
Models: Felipe Tadeu Rosa  & Rene Sato | Assistants: Felipe Mestriner Parra & Beatriz Ruston 

Text: Felipe Marques