The simple answer for that is: it means the best thing there is, simply because it’s too much fun. But being gay made me feel in my own skin the prejudice many people suffer in our society – especially in Brazil. So it brought me closer to the fights for human rights.

The challenge is being myself despite everything and everyone and getting over people’s opinion about you. The success is understanding that the freedom to be whatever you want to be is worth more than money, status or any other material thing.

In Rio de Janeiro, “looking like” is more important than actually “being”. That rule is very strong amongst the gay community. Looking masculine, looking handsome, looking nice seems more important than being happy, being free, being as effeminate or as gay as you really want to be. It’s a bit uncomfortable and, comparing to other cities in the world, many gay men are very closed in their own groups and tribes (but the handsome men at the beach are really something, I have to admit, haha 🙂

It took me almost 20 years to come out of the closet. It was liberating – only after that I feel that I started existing. But it was also more simple than I could imagine and less dramatic as I thought it would be when I was inside the closet.