In Brazil a Fight Broke Out Over Gay Toilets on Mardi Gras

AS Brazil geared up for its annual carnival festivities, a dispute broke out over toilets for the exclusive use of gays and transvestites in samba schools readying for the event.

Protesters claim the recent designation on the premises of Unidos de Tujuca, one of the top Rio de Janeiro samba schools preparing a parade for the March 4-9 carnival, resembles the forced separation of blacks and whites in the past.

"They are carnival apartheid!" Claudio Nascimento, the head of a government anti-homophobia program, told reporters.

But defenders of the segregated conveniences argued they provided a safe area for gays and transvestites.

"I don't see any problem," said Rio's carnival director Iran Araujo, who also heads cultural programs for the Independent League of Samba Schools.

Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people merely have the option to use the special bathrooms, and can still opt to go to the ordinary ones, he said.

Gay-rights activists, though, were divided on the issue, with some complaining they would risk being stigmatised just by using the special toilets.

Unease over the initiative has increased since it came to light that four other samba schools had already discreetly introduced separate toilets.

Rio de Janeiro is considered one of the most gay-friendly destinations in the world.

Yet homophobia remains rampant in Brazil, where gay killings have risen 62 percent in two years compared to 2009, when 198 such murders were reported.

adelaidenow.com.au