The way this trans man’s family expresses solidarity with his dream of having top surgery will make your heart burst
A Brazilian man’s family have expressed their solidarity with his dream of having top surgery in a heartwarming way that has gone viral for all the right reasons.
Richard Alcântara, who is trans and lives in São Caetano do Sul, São Paulo, goes topless in front of his family for the first time with bandages binding his chest in a video that has more than three million views on Twitter and 12,000 Facebook shares.
The video shows his chest covered with a makeshift binder. Alcântara walks towards a line of the men in his family, who have their backs turned.
As he gets closer they turn around – revealing that they all have bandages taped on their chests in solidarity.
Alcântara’s girlfriend, Yuri Almeida, originally shared the video on Facebook – according to Brazilian outlet Ovigilantes.
According to Almeida, Alcântara dreams of having top surgery but can’t afford it.
“I know his daily fight,” she said. “He’s working and raising money for it because it’s his dream. I knew he would be very surprised when they [Alcântara’s family] asked me for the tape.”
A year ago, Almeida wrote on Facebook, Alcântara feared his family would reject him for being trans.
“[He had] already tried against his own life because of depression,” she wrote. “What he didn’t know is that everything has its time, nothing happens by chance. This is a demonstration of unconditional love of a family [who] always put love and union above all, where happiness, where the conquest and realisation of a dream of a member of the family is shared and lived by all. And it’s the family I’m grateful to be part of.”
Brazil is the deadliest country for transgender people in the world.
Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has previously described himself as homophobic.
Alcântara has so far crowdfunded $280 of the $20,000 he needs for top surgery.