The journalists already had a stable union and they lived together since 2018. However, this was seen by both as a bureaucratic contract. Pedro always had the desire to get married for real, a dream that he finally fulfilled on July 2 with an intimate ceremony for relatives, godmothers and godfathers.
“It had great symbolism. Our right to marry is recent and is only supported by a court decision, since our Congress always surrenders to the obscurantism of not recognizing our existence as a couple. Erick, to my happiness, embarked on this dream. It was, indeed, the realization of a dream. We think of every detail, at every moment. And everything turned out as we imagined. We also took the opportunity to get married by civilian”, says Pedro in an interview with UOL.
On the other hand, both claim to be happy for having become a reference for the LGBT community. “We grew up in a time when there was no representation. When people say that they are reflected in our history, it moves us. But this was never planned, it was all very natural. We have been together for almost ten years and we understand that we did not have to hide it from anyone”, dice Erick.
“The people who came before us opened doors for us to be able to talk about our sexuality without fear. And this is a virtuous circle. I hope that somehow we can contribute to empowering the new generations of journalists”, he adds.
A fight against prejudice
On Valentine’s Day 2020, Erick was in the center of the scene after sending him a romantic message to her boyfriend at the end of a news program. The following year, the video went viral again and was the target of homophobic criticism.
“We got some attacks. Fortunately, we had the support of our family and the company. Society has evolved, but there are people who, unfortunately, insist on not joining the change, the plurality. That was the only episode of prejudice we experienced related to work,” he adds.
“We are privileged to have families who took us in. We never hide our sexuality from our friends and co-workers. And we talked about it openly on our networks, even though they were closed. In 2016, when I became a reporter, I opened my networks and I was scared. But Erick gave me a lot of strength and reinforced an idea: we had to be ourselves. That’s how we were and continue to be,” says Pedro.