Greenwald in 2011:
[I]f he were straight he would be living in Manhattan, his home for most of the last 20 years. Instead, he lives in Rio de Janeiro, barred from moving to the United States with his Brazilian boyfriend, David Michael Miranda.
“Brazil recognizes our relationship for immigration purposes, while the government of my supposedly ‘free,’ liberty-loving country enacted a law explicitly barring such recognition,” says Greenwald, referring to the Defense of Marriage Act with the disdain he typically shows for policies he believes are eroding Americans’ freedoms.
Greenwald in 2013:
“When you grow up with any kind of real challenge that forces you to evaluate your relationship to these conventions and the things that you’re taught … you start to question what that system is.” Greenwald told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “Is it really valid in the way that it’s rejecting me or is it the system itself that is corrupted? I think that lends itself to a much more critical eye that you end up casting upon things that you’re taught are indisputably true.”
Brazil in 2013:
A congressional committee in Brazil has approved legislation which would allow the “treatment” of homosexuality as a disorder.
The congressional human rights commission which is led by pastor Marco Feliciano of the Social Christian Party, approved the measure.
Felciano has in the past caused controversy, and was accused of homophobia when he called AIDS a “gay cancer”, in a tweet, reports the Associated press
His appointment as the head of the Commission for Human Rights and Minorities in the lower house of Brazil’s Congress was adamantly opposed by human rights groups.
The measure which was approved on Tuesday would lift a 1999 ban on the “treatment” of homosexuality, which was established by the Federal Psychology Council.
The USA in 2013:
The US Supreme Court has struck down a law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman only, in a landmark ruling.
The court’s 5-4 vote said the Defense of Marriage Act, known as Doma, denied equal protection to same-sex couples.
The decision means that legally married gay men and women are entitled to claim the same federal benefits available to opposite-sex married couples.
Opinion polls show that most Americans support gay marriage.
