Congressman and LGBT+ advocate Jean Wyllys, from the PSOL party, announced yesterday (January 24) that he will resign and leave Brazil due to the constant death threats that he has been receiving primiarily from Bolsonaro’s supporters.
Preservar a vida ameaçada é também uma estratégia da luta por dias melhores. Fizemos muito pelo bem comum. E faremos muito mais quando chegar o novo tempo, não importa que façamos por outros meios! Obrigado a todas e todos vocês, de todo coração. Axé! ✊ https://t.co/Xy6SyDNXDy pic.twitter.com/Tf6SGmZFHq
— Jean Wyllys (@jeanwyllys_real) January 24, 2019
“Preserve a life in danger is also a strategy to fight for better days. We did a lot for the common good. We will do much more when a new time arrives, It doesn’t matter if we do it in different ways! Thank toy to all of you, from all my heart”, wrote Jean on Twitter.
During an interview for the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Jean explained that Bolsonaro’s election as the new president was not what influenced his final decision, although the level of violence in Brazil, more precisely against the LGBT+ community jumped since the elections period last October 2018.
Since November, after the majority of Brazillian voters chose to elect Bolsonaro, a commission of human rights has asked the state to adopt the necessary tools to protect the rights to life and the bodily integrity of Wyllys and his family.
In April 2016, during the impeachment votes of former president Dilma Rousseff, Wyllys, who was a former congressman in Rio de Janeiro, spat on Jair Bolsonaro’s face after he complimented one of the biggest torturers from military dictatorship times, Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra.
Wyllys is one of the ten elected representatives from the PSOL, the same party that Marielle Franco belonged before she was murdered.
Openly queer, well known for fighting for minorities and her criticism of the violence from police officers in the favelas, Marielle was shot dead in March of last year along with her driver Anderson Gomes, the case was never solved.
When Jean’s resignation is enforced, he will be substituted by David Miranda.
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