Apologies to those who don't speak Portuguese, but this is an amazing news mashup, and it is also a good lesson in how the public sphere operates and the slipperiness of signifiers from one news story to the next.
The first story is about how the banca evagenlica, or the Evangelical caucus in the Brazilian Congress has managed to block the addition of sexual orientation into Brazil's non-discrimination law. (This is also known as PLC 122, or the 'criminalization of homophobia.') The reporters have fun with the comments of far-right opposition to the bill calling it the beginning of an "imperialismo gay." The second story is about a protest that took second story is about the proposed metro stop for the 6th metro line (not scheduled to be built until 2020!) that was supposed to go through the rich neighborhood of higienopolis. In the video, a lot of rich residents explain how the metro stop would only bring potheads and criminals to their "traditional" neighborhood (because says one lady, these are the people who hang out at metro stops). Another lady in sunglasses (gotta love her), explains how, although her maid takes 3 busses to get to her house, people like her maid still don't know how to use a subway, so it wouldn't really help anyways. In response to this, a huge protest yesteday blocked the intersection in this neighborhood where the metro is supposed to go and had a hoedown for fabulous people (churrascão da gente diferenciada), where they made fun of these residents (and called them worse names then snobs). Note that the title of the video is called imperio gay vs. gente diferenciada, which shows how people consume stories like these together, and as part of a wider field of Brazilian class and sex politics. The other two stories are about the rising price of gasoline and the very controversial plan to open up more land in the Amazon to cattle raising (mostly for export to Russia and other fast developing economies).
Plus, they play "Common People" during the metro story. What's not to love!
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