Jean Wyllys
Jean Wyllys is a journalist and researcher, and a former member of the Brazilian Congress; he is currently doing doctoral research on “fake news” at the University of Barcelona. Wyllys became an icon of the LGTBI+ community in Brazil after appearing on a television program that helped to normalise homosexuality in Brazilian public opinion. Following his political engagement, in 2011 he was elected to Congress for the Partido Socialismo y Libertad (PSOL) in Rio de Janeiro.
He was one of the most active members of the Brazilian parliament in the defence of human rights, especially in relation to LGBTI rights. Among other things, he proposed a law regulating prostitution, the legalisation and government regulation of marijuana production, and government funding for gender reassignment surgeries and for hormone treatment for transgender people.
With the victory of Jair Bolsonaro in the Brazilian general elections in 2018, he resigned from his post and went into exile in Europe, after receiving several death threats.
Wyllys holds a Master’s degree in Literature and Linguistics from the Federal University of Bahia, and he has been a professor of Brazilian Culture and Communication Theory at various schools in his home country. He was a columnist for the newspaper Correio da Bahia and has published the books Aflitos. Crônicas e contos (Casa de Palavras da Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado) which won him the Copene Prize for Literature, Ainda Lembro. Crônicas e experiências vividas no BBB5 (Editora Globo, 2005), Tudo ao mesmo tempo agora. Crônicas e perturbacoes (Giostro Editora, 2009) and Tempo bom tempo ruim. Identidades, políticas, afetos (Companhia das Letras, 2014).[1]
David Miranda connection
"Despite his determination to change things, David Miranda’s entrance into Congress was bittersweet. He took over a seat after his friend Jean Wyllys, another black and out member of PSOL, decided to flee the country in January after receiving death threats. Miranda had run on the same party list as Wyllys in 2018 and was elected in a kind of under-study system. Since taking over, he says he has also received “hundreds” of death threats, which he reported to the police. He has hired security for his family.
Susan Wild connection
Susan Wild with Jean Wyllys Brazil.
rogatyuk connection
Denis Rogatyuk with Jean Wyllys.
PSOL
In June 2017, Ella Mahony and Neal Meyer, as representatives of the Democratic Socialists of America, attended the Acampamento Internacional de Juventudes em Luta (the International Encampment of Youth in Struggle) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The Acampamento is organized by a current within Brazil’s Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSOL), designed both as a congress for its youth wing and as a convocation of international solidarity.
PSOL was formed in 2004 after Brazil’s Workers Party (PT), purged its left wing in an effort to pass an austerity-style pension reform. The purged activists regrouped as PSOL, which is a multi-tendency party, with several internal currents (who maintain their own international affiliations), and which promotes democratic socialism. As of 2016 it had 122,396 active members and 73 elected officials, some of whom are fairly influential, such as Marcelo Freixo and Jean Wyllys.