Sao Paulo: Brazil’s first openly gay congressman, Jean Wyllys, revealed in an interview published on Thursday that he has resigned his seat and left the country in the face of death threats. The lawmaker, who became famous as the winner of the Brazilian version of TV reality show “Big Brother,” told Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper that he began contemplating retirement from public life after the murder last March of another high-profile LGBT politician, Rio de Janeiro city councilor Marielle Franco.
The Afro-Brazilian lesbian grew up in one of Rio’s toughest neighbourhoods and was a vocal critic of killings by police and by para-police death squads known as militias. Wyllys said, reports Efe. “On top of those death threats there was another possibility: an attack carried out by fanatical people who believe the systematic defamation directed at me,” he said.
