A majority in Brazil’s Supreme Court has voted in favor of making homophobia and transphobia crimes illegal. Bias against LGBTQ people will now be equivalent to racism under the law.

Six of the Supreme Federal Tribunal’s 11 judges voted on Thursday in favor of the measure, with the other five set to vote in a court session on June 5, the Associated Press reports. However those judges vote, the result will remain the same, and will go into effect after that vote is held.

MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP/Getty Images

Brazil made racism a crime in 1989, with prison sentences of up to five years, and the court decided anti-LGBTQ hatred should be placed under the racism law until such a time that Congress approves one specific to homophobia and transphobia. The Senate is currently considering a bill to criminalize discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and penalize those who commit the offense with five years in prison.

“Racism is a crime against flesh and blood, whether it is a member of the LGBT community, a Jew or an Afro-descendant,” said Justice Luiz Fux.

The justice noted the “epidemic levels of homophobic violence” as another reason the law is needed. There is also an ongoing epidemic of transphobic violence, with the LGBTQ organization Grupo Gay da Bahia reporting there have been at least 141 LGBTQ people killed in Brazil so far this year, and some 420 murdered last year.

Marielle Franco, a lesbian city councilor in Rio de Janeiro, was one of those victims in 2018. Another out politician, former Congressman Jean Wyllys, fled the country shortly after winning re-election due to death threats directed both at himself and his family.

EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images

While marriage equality was legalized in 2013, and same-sex couples are allowed to adopt, the situation for the community has worsened since the election of President Jair Bolsonaro (pictured above).

The president is an admitted homophobe who has said he would prefer a dead son to a gay one.

His administration began attacking the LGBTQ community and other minority groups on day one in office, showing his bias goes beyond simple rhetoric. He has overseen the removal of concerns of the LGBTQ community from consideration by the new human rights ministry, as well as announcing plans to remove all references to homosexuality, feminism, and violence against women from textbooks.