Last Updated on March 13, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry
Marielle Franco was a queer Afro-Latina Brazilian politician and LGBTQ activist who fought for human rights. She was assassinated on March 14, 2018.
Franco identified as bisexual. She and her partner, Mônica Tereza Benício, were planning to marry later that year.
Franco rose from the slums (favela) of Rio de Janeiro to be elected to the Rio de Janeiro City Council, where she served for about a year before her death. She advocated for all human rights and was an outspoken critic of police brutality. “Fight like Marielle Franco” (Como lute Marielle Franco) is a catchphrase on T-shirts.
After Franco was killed in a drive-by shooting, thousands protested in the streets across Brazil. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemned her assassination.
“To be a black woman is to resist and survive all the time,” Franco said in a memorable interview. (In Portuguese, Ser mulher negra é resistir e sobreviver o tempo todo.”)
Now she survives in the hearts of all who remember her. Rest in power, Marielle.
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Top image credit:
Marielle Franco wall art by the Nasty Mujer Etsy shop
This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBT and queer martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
This article was originally published on Q Spirit on March 14, 2021 and was most recently updated on March 13, 2024.
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