The President of Brazil, Luiz Lula, has criticised Christian groups in the country and has promised to continue pressing for a law that will make homophobia a crime.

Writing to the Third Congress of the Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites, and Transsexuals (AGBLT), Lula condemned many Christian groups for opposing his plans to criminalise any speech critical of homosexuality.

He wrote, "Some backward as well as hypocritical sectors ... have criticised our government for supporting initiatives that criminalize words or acts that are offensive to homosexuality… That has no importance. I will continue, with the support of the entire government, to maintain that attitude."

Although Lula has so far been unsuccessful in his aim of passing a law restricting speech on this issue, in some cases the courts have used existing laws to punish those who oppose homosexuality.

Individuals and organisations have already been censored or fined by the courts for opposing homosexuality, whilst one pro-family group had their campaign cancelled by a court order.

According to LifeSiteNews, Julio Severo, one of the leading pro-family and pro-life activists in Brazil, was forced to flee the country recently after a complaint of homophobia made against him led investigators to find his address. He is currently living at a secret location.

On the other side of the debate, Luiz Mott, who leads the Gay Associaion of Bahia, has said that homosexuals should kill people who attack them.

According to Mott, the number of murders of gays in Brazil is rising. He was quoted on the homosexual website A Capa as saying, "If in the next poll this number increases, we must radicalise. And for that purpose we are going to have a campaign where we say 'Kill in legitimate defense, protect yourself."

However, according to LifeSiteNews, Mott’s statistics are distorted by the fact that he counts all murders of homosexuals as a “homophobic” crime, even in cases where male prostitutes are murdered by their clients. In addition the overall murder rate in Brazil is 28 per 100,000 people, while the murder rate for homosexuals in the country is 1.31 per 100,000 people.

Caio Varela, an adviser to Brazilian Senator Fatima Cleide, criticised Mott for his comments saying, "He doesn't understand that tomorrow some queer out there at the end of the world might read that in some site or publication and commit a crime."