Celio De Andrade and his husband, Fernando De Abreu, can see the newly installed rainbow crosswalk from their condo’s balcony in Barrie’s downtown.
The rainbow crosswalk, which was painted during the the night of July 3 on Simcoe Street, was unveiled without much fanfare, but the gesture alone is enough to fill the hearts of local members of the LGBTQ community.
“It makes me feel like I am in the right place right now, and that people are accepting me. It’s a symbol that means (LGBTQ people) are here to stay. We are not stepping back. We’re going to struggle more for improvements to our community,” said De Andrade.
The couple moved to Canada from Brazil in December 2018, hopeful they would be able to escape the oppression they dealt with there.
“For me, Brazil was never a good place,” said De Andrade. “Most Brazilians hate people like me.”
While De Andrade is gay, he also lived adjacent to a port in Brazil.
“It’s like a slum, but I don’t like that word,” he said. “I came from this place. To be a person who lives there, and gay, and I have indigenous heritage too. When you’re born with these labels in Brazil, your life is pretty hard.”
De Andrade points out that as Brazil was one of the last countries in the world to abolish slavery, there is a strange culture there that still exists today.
“Some people are more important than other people in Brazil,” he said. “The system there is made for basically white, rich people.”
De Andrade and his husband met each other at Carnivale in Rio di Janeiro about 10 years ago. They were married last year.
“We experienced a lot of prejudice,” said DeAndrade, adding that while he dealt personally with slurs and aggressive behaviour from strangers, he considers himself lucky to not have experienced violence there.
“I do have friends in Brazil who have experienced physical violence from the police.”
De Andrade says he saw many instances of people being shot just for being gay.
“Nothing happens to (the perpetrators),” he said.
A year and a half ago, De Andrade graduated with a diploma in public relations in Brazil, however he found the job market difficult due to the political climate.
“Right now it’s really difficult because of Jair Bolsonaro (the new president of Brazil as of 2018) -- he’s our Trump,” said De Andrade.
“The economy is pretty crazy right now and the unemployment rate is really high. People would also see my address (on my resume), they would see my skin and my hair before seeing what I could actually do in the job.”
The poor job market led De Andrade and his husband to do some research into options in other countries.
“We thought, Canada is a country that’s open to everybody. Nobody would see us like they saw us in Brazil. People will respect you in Canada,” he said. “In Brazil, we had this idea that everything would be amazing because there’s no homophobia or racism in Canada.”
De Andrade saw a video online for Georgian College that talked about the success rate of graduates, and the decision was made by the couple to move to Barrie.
But the rose-coloured glasses soon faded after getting off the plane in December 2018 and discovering Canada through their own experiences in Barrie.
Experiences of homophobia in the city marred some of De Andrade’s early optimism. He says he’s been yelled at for expressing his opinions on issues such as pride parades, rights for the LGBT community, or even just for looking at someone in a way they didn’t like.
“I was having a conversation with two other people, a girl and a guy. We were talking about my marriage. The girl (who was Indian) said, ‘In India it’s not like this.’ I said to her, I see a lot of Indian guys who are gay, and are open here in Canada. At the end of this conversation, the guy (who was Indian) said to me, ‘You said a lot of Indian people are gay, and you looked at me, and I didn’t like it, so be careful,’” he said.
“I don’t know how to explain how I felt. I don’t know if I felt fear... it was strange and very uncomfortable. I didn’t know what to say,” said De Andrade.
After dealing with homophobia in Barrie, De Andrade started to worry he had made a huge mistake, moving to Canada.
“I didn’t feel comfortable here in this country, mostly in Barrie. I considered going back to Brazil,” he said.
But the kindness of strangers kept De Andrade and his husband here. They started to meet community members who shared their values, and started making friends in the local LGBTQ community.
De Andrade even joined Fierté Simcoe Pride and now sits on the Barrie sub-committee.
“There are a lot of good people here. They’re fighting for LGBTQ rights,” he said. “It’s not quite what I imagined, but there’s a lot of good people standing here too.”
He and his husband attended the council meetings in May concerning the rainbow crosswalk installation to show solidarity.
“We know the importance of showing people we cared by being there,” he said. “I was so glad we were there. I was so happy, because this is a place in which I choose to live. I have experienced homophobia here. It was important to show people that we exist.”
Ward 2 Coun. Keenan Aylwin says he feels pride now that the rainbow crosswalk has been unveiled.
“As a closeted gay kid growing up in Barrie, a symbol like that would have gone a long way toward letting me know that if you’re a member of the LGBTQ community, you have a place here in Barrie. You’re loved, supported and accepted,” said Aylwin.
Aylwin was one of the first people to post his own photo of the rainbow crosswalk on social media this morning, and looks forward to seeing others of the new waterfront addition.
“It’s going to be great for tourism. It’s going to be great for the LGBTQ community, and it’s going to be great for downtown Barrie,” he added.
When the crosswalk was approved, De Andrade was overjoyed. Now that he can see it from his window, he feels more at home.
“It’s like a history. Fernando and I started from zero. We met these LGBTQ people. We heard about the rainbow crosswalk. We supported it, then they passed it. Now, we can see it out of our window,” he said. “We’re a part of history. This shows we can do beautiful things here.”
