Category Archives: Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Francisco, Journalist/Communication Consultant, Rio De Janeiro

photo by Kevin Truong

Francisco, in his own Portuguese words: “O que ser gay significa para você?

Ser gay não significa nada de muito diferente do que ser uma pessoa como qualquer outra. Talvez uma sensibilidade um tanto mais apurada, mas não me sinto mais ou menos especial por isso.

Quais desafios e sucessos você teve?

A vida é um desafio cotidiano. Considero como vitórias a minha carreira, trabalho e o estudo.

Como é a comunidade gay em Rio De Janiero?

Não me interesso muito por comunidades gays ou guetos. Acho que devemos viver integrados com todos e transitar por qualquer ambiente.

Como foi sair do armário?

Sair do armário é sempre uma conquista. Quando isso aconteceu, me senti mais inteiro, seguro e respeitado.

Se você pudesse dar um conselho para você mesmo antes de sair do armário, o que você diria?

Isso é menos importante do que parece. As pessoas vão te aceitar de qualquer maneira. Quem realmente gosta de você, vai continuar gostando e, na verdade, vão te admirar mais pela sua coragem e força de ser quem você realmente é.

I was born in Chile, but my family came to Brazil when I was four. I was living in Brasília, but I’ve came to Rio three months ago.”

Vito and Fernando, Photographer and Civil Servant, Rio De Janeiro

photo by Kevin Truong

Fernando, in his own words: “I never thought what means to me to be a gay man. But I know or I feel it´s not just only be sexually attracted to other men, it´s being comfortable with it.

Challenge or success of being gay? I think we only have challenge being gay! All of the people around us think about our sexuallity or our homosexuality, and rarely we hear good things from them. All the time we have to prove we are not pathetic or promiscuous.

“Coming out” was not very easy. Even hard! I think it was a process I took some time to complete. It was not very easy to accept myself but keep secrets is very exhausting. The first step of my “coming out” was accept that I am gay, then was easier to tell my sons and my family.

(If I could give myself advice before coming out I’d say) Don´t waste time!! Be happy!!”

Vitor, in his own words “It’s really simple, to be gay is to be happy with myself and faithful with other people.

I keep having a challenge, cause my family “don’t know” about my sexuality, or they pretend to… but it’s ok, because we live too far. I’m being successful about my friends, I’ve never had any problem with then about this. They are my family in Rio.

The gay community in Rio is really bad… we have always the same things happening, same parties, same places, same people…. same blah blah blah. I love the gay community at São Paulo, there’s a lot of differences from here!

(With regards to coming out) I’m still in the closet…to my family! hahahhaha But in Rio, everybody knows, and it happened in the most normal way:
– Hi Carol, I’m gay.
– Ok. lets go drink!

(Advice I’d give myself) Face your family, they love you.”

João Pedro, Graphic Designer/Actor, Rio De Janeiro

photo by Kevin Truong

João, in his own words: “Well, I used to say, and to think, that being gay is nothing but a part of me, just as my black hair, my voice, etc, and this is true, but now, more and more, I feel like its actually much more important. I feel like being gay is being free, but not in the poetic sense (I’m not a huge fan of poetry haha) but free in real life! Free to do whatever I want, wear whatever I want, go wherever I want, etc.

And when I stop to think about it, if I weren’t gay, I’d probably never do many of the things that I’ve done and that have changed my life in someway.

If I weren’t gay I’d be afraid to be who I really am, to do what I really feel like doing, afraid of the bullying, afraid of what others would think of me.

But being gay I grew strong and am not afraid of any of those things anymore. I learned that there will always be people that hate me and people that judge me, you can’t please everyone, so you better please yourself.

If I could give myself advice before coming out I’d probably say something like this: “Baby, relax, chill, don’t you cry and don’t you worry about it! To be gay It’s not nothing, it’s not something irrelevant, it is in fact something that kind of defines you, but for those who actually like you it will be just fine, and for you, well, I don’t want to spoil the surprises, but trust me, being gay, out and proud will be hard sometimes, but it will also be fucking awesome!!”

THE GAY MEN PROJECT

The visual catalog of gay and queer men around the world.

Category Archives: Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Francisco, Journalist/Communication Consultant, Rio De Janeiro

Vito and Fernando, Photographer and Civil Servant, Rio De Janeiro

João Pedro, Graphic Designer/Actor, Rio De Janeiro