Brazilian Legislator Speaking At Evangelical Rally Orders Arrest For Lesbian Kiss In Audience

Global Voices reported last week on a Sept. 15 incident in Brazil in which police arrested two young women who stood on their chairs and demonstrably kissed each other romantically during an evangelical event in the city of São Sebastião.  Pastor Marco Feliciano, a Brazilian congressman and president of the House Commission for Human Rights and Minorities, interrupted his presentation to the audience of 70,000 to order police to arrest the two women. He told the audience: "This here isn't palace where anything goes, It’s the house of God."  Subsequently Feliciano justified his actions on Twitter, saying that the women were violating Art. 208 of the Brazilian Penal Code that prohibits disturbing a ceremony or practice of religious worship.