Brody's Notes & Scribbles

Pope met with "kissing" protests in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

By Dan Littauer | RIO DE JANEIRO, -- Approximately 200 LGBT rights advocates staged a gay kissing protest against Pope Francis’ anti-gay marriage stance during his first state visit to Brazil as pontiff Monday.

A group of young gay and couples kissed on the steps of the Catholic Church of Our Lady Victorious in the city's central square of Largo do Machado, in Rio de Janeiro.

Earlier Rio police had blocked access to the state governor's palace as hundreds of Anonymous "hacktivists" and gay militants rallied to denounce Rio state Governor Sergio Cabral's policies as well as the $53 million spent on the pope's landmark visit to what remains the world's most populous Catholic nation. 

"Go away Cabral, go away Dilma," the demonstrators chanted while a huge banner read: "Down with the fascist state and its anti-people governments."  The protestors had attempted to march toward the Guanabara Palace, where Sergio Cabral, Governor of Rio De Janeiro State, and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff received Pope Francis.

The 76-year-old Argentinean Pontiff rode in an open-top jeep through the center of Rio de Janeiro, kicking off his week-long visit to a country whose Catholic numbers are slipping and in which a slow economic progress has recently been added to by social unrest.

During the march gay couples also were seen kissing in protest.

The gay-kissing protest was organized the LGBT rights advocates via Facebook and did not affiliate with any official advocacy group.

"There is no interest in meeting up with the Pope, we have nothing to demand from the church. 

“We do not want or need any religion to legitimate our sexualities. We just want them to be respected,” stated one of the organizers in a video posted online on YouTube.