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About Brasilia
Brasília's Pride parade, the Parada do Orgulho LGBT+ de Brasília, dates back to the late nineties. It is considered the third-oldest Pride parade in Brazil, after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The organizer is a local collective called Brasília Orgulho. Its coordinators like to point out that when the parade started, no openly LGBT+ person held office anywhere in the country's legislatures or governments.
The crowd gathers on the lawn of the Esplanada dos Ministérios in front of the National Congress, usually from 2 pm. Later the march moves along the Eixo Monumental toward the Museu da República and the TV Tower, following several trios elétricos, the big sound trucks familiar from Brazilian carnival. The parade closes Pride month in the capital and normally takes place in early or mid-July. At one recent edition the organizers counted around 80,000 people, and for the first time Indigenous LGBT+ people led the march. Brasília Orgulho also calls it the first carbon-neutral Pride parade in Latin America.
For some years now the parade has been the finale of a longer festival. The Festival Brasília Orgulho starts about two weeks earlier, with events on literature, sport, fashion, photography and the creative economy, plus an LGBT+ fair. Each edition has a political theme. One focused on queer youth from the city's outskirts; a more recent one, "LGBT, levante e vote", urged people to vote for candidates who defend their rights. At information tents the civil police take reports of anti-LGBT violence, and the public defender's office explains how to get your chosen name on official documents.
The collective works outside Pride season too. Its "Cidade Orgulho" campaign puts rainbow flags on the flagpoles of the Esplanada, at the National Library, on the steps of the TV Tower and in metro stations, and InterPride has given it two awards. Brazil's legal framework is fairly strong: same-sex marriage has been available for more than a decade, and the Supreme Court has ruled that homophobia and transphobia are punishable under the law against racism.
Brasilia Pride – frequently asked questions
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