Waldir Pires Bittencourt, a 25-year-old gay rights activist and House of Representatives hopeful was attacked with a rock on Wednesday. Bittencourt campaigning in the streets of the city of Macapá when a stone was lobbed from a car window with the words, “You want to be a woman? Then you’ll get it as a woman.”
Bittencourt was struck on the side of his forehead and posted his injury on facebook. Warning: head injuries cause a lot of blood and this picture may be graphic for some readers:
Bittencourt says he was not shocked by the attack. He has been receiving several death threats for being openly gay and calling for an end of LGBT discrimination. “We live in a homophobic and violent country,” the young politician said on Facebook. “It is where people who defend individual freedoms like me may at any time suffer aggression.”
