Local Impacts of Religious Discourses on Rights to Express Same-Sex Sexual Desires in Peri-Urban Rio de Janeiro.

This article reports on a study that examined how religious discourses of inclusion and exclusion-in Roman Catholic, evangelical Protestant, and Afro-Brazilian religious traditions-affected people's rights to express same-sex sexual desires, behaviors, and identities in the socioeconomically marginalized urban periphery of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Using extended ethnographic observation of institutions and religious events over a period of 2 years, the authors identified how sexual rights were constructed within religious discourses and conducted ethnographic interviews with 45 religious leaders. In the low-income and violent urban periphery of Rio de Janeiro, religious leaders and institutions play key roles in molding community inclusion and exclusion.

Masculorum concubitores: views on homosexuality among Catholics in Recife, Brazil.

This study focuses on Catholics' views towards homosexuality. The discussion is based on an ethnographic survey involving interviews with priests and lay leaders as well as participant observation of daily life in a working-class neighborhood in Recife, Pernambuco State, Brazil. The analysis points to persistent prejudice against homosexuality in the neighborhood and among Catholic clergy and lay leaders interviewed in the study.