Brazil’s First-Ever Major Queer Art Exhibition Shut Down In Face Of Right-Wing Outrage

The show at the Santander Bank Cultural Center in Pôrto Alegre, titled “Queermuseu,” had been running for more than three weeks without incident when a self-styled “libertarian” group called the Free Brazil Movement (which was heavily involved in the movement to impeach former president Dilma Rouseff) began vehement protests of the exhibition on social media, argiung that the show promoted pedophilia, bestiality, and blasphemy. (There are no images in the show depicting sex with children or animals.) Santander Bank abruptly shut the show down, not even notifying the curator. Now protesters have been gathering to demand that “Queermuseu” reopen.