Response to Rui da Fonseca e Castro: the lies and twisted rhetoric propagated by Habeas Corpus and Ergue-te
On Friday, October 10th, at Livraria Buchholz, the book “Giving and Receiving Love in All Its Forms — Guide for parents of LGBTQIA+ children and young peopleabout how to deal with fears, insecurities and doubts. This book was coordinated by AMPLOS (Association of Mothers and Fathers for Freedom of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) and signed by journalist Sara Dias Oliveira. It is, just as the subtitle says, a map for parents who are caught by surprise, so that they can ensure that their LGBTQIA+ sons, daughters and daughters feel loved and supported.
As expected, the book was the target of unreasonable criticism from anti-LGBT groups, namely the You have a body and the party Risewho attempted to censor the launch event. Journalist Bernardo Mendonça was at the scene and reported what happenedin your newsletter titled “The circus of hate is what provides a channel”, with his usual assertive words.
The day after the event, the head of the group Rui da Fonseca e Castro released a video in the Telegram chat of You have a bodywhere, with his always very serious and ironically calm posture, he revealed “the objectives of yesterday’s action”. You can find the speech transcribed in full at the end of this article. Next, I will deconstruct Rui da Fonseca and Castro’s accusations against AMPLOS.
“AMPLOS is an LGBTQIA+ association, and so on, that lives off public money, lives off our tax money”
AMPLOS does not have a share of the State Budget – the association has existed for 15 years and has only had a small support for 3 years. This little support they have comes from the State Secretariat for Equality, for which they have to apply. It is with this support that he is able to maintain his psychologist and trainer, rent an office for his functions and a person in part-time with administrative functions. AMPLOS lives mainly from sporadic donations and from members with regular donations. Therefore, unfortunately, AMPLOS does not live off our tax money. If it were, this money would be well spent, as it is essential to have training in schools, for teachers, parents, health professionals, to treat LGBTQIA+ people with dignity and knowledge. AMPLOS is currently the only association in Portugal that targets parents. The family has proven to play a key role in the mental health of LGBTQIA+ children and young people.
“is dedicated to the stigmatization of the family and promotes the degeneration and homosexualization of children and young people”
No association that protects LGBTQIA+ people wants to stigmatize the family, nor homosexualize anyone.
First of all, we need to rethink the definition of family. Family is where there is acceptance and love. There are more and more single mothers and fathers, there are more and more stepmothers and stepfathers, and there are more and more families queer who live with love and who care for their sons and daughters with respect and affection. No one wants to stigmatize family, but rather redefine what it means. A traditional family (read “cisgender, heterosexual couple with children”) is good if there is unconditional love, freedom and respect. Why, what really matters is that there are happy families. Whether they are traditional or not is a secondary factor.
Secondly, sexual orientation is not something that is chosen or promoted. In fact, AMPLOS supports fathers and mothers with LGBTQIA+ daughters, sons and daughters, AMPLOS does not provide workshops about how to “make” sons and daughters gay, lesbian or trans. Have patience and information.
“in the degenerates, those who don’t have a family, who have nowhere to sleep, who sleep together, who take drugs. (…) These are people who, if they disappear, no one can notice. They have no importance whatsoever, but are instrumentalized by these associations. They are exploited by those who have financial power and by those who want to destroy our society.”
Rui da Fonseca e Castro calls LGBTQIA+ people “degenerate”, but then complains about how elements of the You have a body and Ergue-te were insulted. Ironic at the very least. He says it is these “degenerates” who ruin society. Now, Dear Rui, LGBTQIA+ people are part of society, whether you like it or not, because society is all of us. The difference is that before they had to stay hidden all the time, whereas today they can launch books and go to events. There have always been different sexual orientations and gender identities, even when it was illegal (and still is in many countries).
LGBTQIA+ people are not instrumentalized by associations, but rather supported. It’s time for these far-right groups to stop projecting their goals of wanting to come to power. There are associations, such as AMPLOS, that are really the only can What they seek is to be able to help build families that are governed by unconditional love, and not by abandonment, prejudice or trauma.
In addition to these, there are two other arguments commonly used by these groups, which I talk about below.
Common argument number 1: “LGBT kills”
The data on attempted and actual suicide rates within the community is distorted to make one think that an LGBT person might want to end their life because they are LGBT, when that is not the real narrative: An LGBT person is at greater risk of suicide due to a lack of acceptance from society and their own family. It’s not being LGBTQ+ that kills, it’s discrimination.
But I say, a gay teenager is not less gay just because the law prohibits it. A lesbian teenager does not become straight because her family raised her “to be straight.” It is as natural to be straight as it is to be homosexual. And being trans doesn’t make anyone less valid, it doesn’t make a life less valuable, nor should it be a justification for a person to have less access to healthcare (as is still the case).
Common argument number 2: “LGBT doesn’t procreate”
As for the notion of being gay or lesbian as unnatural because they do not procreate, this argument is easily discovered as a fallacy. There are many heterosexual couples with fertility problems and that doesn’t make them any less valid. There are hetero couples who, in order to become parents, resort to IVF treatments or adopt. That doesn’t make them any less of a parent. Furthermore, there are still couples queer who can procreate through sexual intercourse. For example, it is possible for a fertile trans man with a uterus and a fertile cis man to be able to procreate.
Now, as we see, it is not the ability to procreate naturally that makes someone more or less valid, as the possibility or impossibility of procreating naturally is not automatically related to their sexual orientation or gender identity of the couple.
A final note
If you don’t like seeing two men or two women kissing in the street, you can go home. In your house “you don’t see these things”.
A big hug to all the parents who, even with doubts, even with fears, hug their sons and daughters unconditionally. Thank you very much to AMPLOS for the spectacular work they do.
Confused and complete speech by Rui da Fonseca e Castro
“Another Habeas Corpus and Ergue-te action took place yesterday, this time as part of the presentation of a book by Amplos, which would take place at the Buchholz bookstore, in Lisbon, from 6:30 pm. Amplos is an LGBTQIA+ association, and so on, that lives off public money, lives off our tax money, in other words, lives off our money and is dedicated to stigmatizing the family and promoting degeneration and homosexualization of children and young people. And therefore, We intend to be present at this presentation to ask questionsit wasn’t to boycott, it was to ask questions and we would wait for the moment to officially open for that purpose. We knew, however, that from the moment we announced our presence that efforts would be made to prevent us from entering the bookstore premises, even if to do so we had to use lies, as was done.
The entities involved, the bookstore and Amplos used lies to obtain the presence of PSP elements at the location. But it wasn’t the PSP that prevented us from entering the venue. The PSP could not prevent us from peacefully entering a place open to the public, to be present at an event open to the public. Those who prevented us from entering were civilian elements, who were actually providing private security — I have to go and check if there is actually some type of responsibility that could be held against the Buchholz bookstore — and degenerate elements who gathered at the entrance of the bookstore and who then they clashed.
The action was a great success, It was a great success because the purpose of this action was precisely to demonstrate, on the one hand, the lies of the media. Nowadays the media doesn’t just tell half truths, it lies compulsively. Honestly, I don’t know how journalists from conventional media can sleep, I don’t understand that, well, there are people who steal and kill, so they probably feel like little angels.
On the other hand, the main purpose of this action was to demonstrate, after all, who the violent people are. Us [Habeas Corpus e Ergue-te] we are never violent and yesterday we showed that violence is on the other side. The violence is in the groups that orbit around these associations. In the groups that orbit around the Left Bloc, in the degenerates, in those who don’t have a family, who have nowhere to sleep, who all sleep together, who take drugs and that happened. Not just verbal violence, but also physical violence. They spit, they drooled. They attacked the police, called names, insulted the people present in the worst possible way. And therefore, it was a great success, because that was precisely our objective, was to show that these degenerates are actually violent. These are people who, if they disappear, no one notices. They have no importance whatsoever, but are instrumentalized by these associations. They are exploited by those who have financial power and by those who want to destroy our society. These are the people behind these associations like Amplos. And this was fully demonstrated yesterday. Thank you, have a good day, see you soon.”
