Jean Wyllys

Jean Wyllys

Biography

Jean Wyllys grew up in extreme poverty in the small Brazilian city of Alagoinhas. This didn’t prevent him from completing
a degree in journalism and a Master’s degree in linguistics and literature at the University of Bahia, however, where he then stayed on to work as a lecturer. In 2005, he won the Brazilian version of the TV show “Big Brother”. Ten million viewers voted for him despite him being frank about his homosexuality, which triggered a wider debate in Brazil at the time. In 2010, he became the first openly gay MP for the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) in the Brazilian congress and he took up the fight against homophobia, misogyny and racism. This led to him and his family receiving death threats and, despite being re-elected in 2018, he fled Brazil for exile in Europe.