"A True Love Story..."

Lins Mayor Edgar de Souza, left,and his husband,

businessman Alexsandro Luciano Trindade

This Mayor Faced Homophobia And Married His Companion After 13 Years Together

Huffington Post Brazil

Ana Beatriz Rosa Reporter for Voices, Women and News

3/3/2017

In 2012, Edgar de Souza (PSDB) was the only candidate for the position of mayor in Brazil to declare during his campaign that he was homosexual. Five years later, the re-elected mayor of Lins, in São Paulo, married his partner Alexsandro Luciano Trindade.

The Couple in 2011

They have been together for 13 years and the ceremony was a way to celebrate their relationship that began as a teenager. Edgar and Alex met in their youth, but it was only in 2004 that they started dating.

During the first campaign in which he ran for mayor of the Lins prefecture, Souza saw his personal life being targeted by homophobic attacks by other politicians.

Campaigning together

In an interview with the G1 magazine at the time, he said that posters with photos of him along with Alex were scattered in the city with pejorative messages, like "If you vote him your city will be governed by this family."

At the last rally of the campaign, he decided to stand up and tell the voters how he felt.

"I do not have to hide with who I live, who I love. If I hide, I do not deserve to be your mayor. God loves me as a homosexual," he argued from the top of the podium.

"I never used homosexuality to carry a flag and everything they tried to do fell apart. My sexual orientation does not define my character and my winning votes were due to my political history."

In 2016, Edgar de Souza received 47.99% of the votes and was the only mayor re-elected in the region. As a sociologist connected with the theology of the liberation of the Catholic Church, the mayor began his public career early. At the age of 20 he was elected a city councilor and after three consecutive terms in city hall was elected mayor.

The politician said that he hoped making public his personal life has helped lessen prejudice among the city's more than 75 thousand inhabitants.

"I set out to have an open life so people could see that homosexuals are no different from heterosexuals."

In social networks, the politician shared that he has received messages of affection on the part of the residents who desired happiness for him and his husband in their marriage.

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Translated and edited to English from the original Portuguese article here: HuffPostBrazil

Scenes from their beautiful wedding:

Watch the happy couple discuss their life and love below:
(In Portuguese)