Under the military dictatorship, gay life in Brazil remained relatively unaffected by the government’s oppressive policies. In fact, the economic boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s led to an expansion of commercial actives and goods geared toward gay men. That said, the government’s policies did affect certain certain elements of Brazilian society tied to homosexuality. The closed political environment of the Medici years (1969-1974) discouraged the organization of a Brazilian gay liberation movement until after the political opening of 1976. Moreover, gay publications went out of circulation due to fear of the military’s censorship laws, and theatrical productions were regularly censored or shut down due to themes of homosexuality.

Despite the overall trend toward increased acceptance of homosexuality, certain homosexuals faced extreme homophobia by the leftist opposition movements that gained traction in the early years of the dictatorship. Indeed, homosexuals in the revolutionary left were forced to conceal their sexual orientation or face expulsion from the movement. For an in-depth analysis of homosexuality in Brazil’s leftist opposition groups during the dictatorship, click on the following image to read James N. Green’s article “Who is the Macho Who Wants to Kill Me?: Male Homosexuality, Revolutionary Masculinity, and the Brazilian Armed Struggle of the 1960 and 70s.”