Transgender model steals the fashion show in Rio

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rio closed its main fashion event of the year with less attention to the clothes than the model — a transgendered actress.

Patricia Araujo received a standing ovation after parading along the runway for the Complexo B brand late Friday to end the weeklong event in a city that delights in shocking the prudish with each year's Carnival celebration.

Complexo B designer Beto Neves said he invited Araujo to amaze the public.

"In fashion, the cool thing is to surprise," he told O Dia newspaper.

Globo Television's Web site called the 25-year-old Araujo "the star" of the show's final day, and model Isabeli Fontana told O Dia that Araujo "is the greatest."

Tall and slim, the dark-haired Araujo entered the catwalk wearing a long fur coat and quickly unveiled a short black-and-white dress to the applause of the hundreds of guests at the event.

"I love to be mobbed by the press," she told O Dia afterward. "I've always dreamed of being famous."

Her legal name is Patricia Oliveira, but she is known by the stage name of Araujo.

*AP Photo/Ricardo Moraes

'PINK Armenia' at the Gay Pride in Brazil

PINK Armenia posted a moving account (with photos; see one below) by talented Armenian actor and LGBT activist, one of the founders of PINK Armenia, now residing in Brazil. As far as I am aware, he feels happy there with someone very special. Good luck, Arthur, and… congrats! Look forward to more posts from you.

In Porto Velho, the capital of Brazilian state Rondonha, as it turned out later there was not a single Armenian, except me. I was the one of my type. To present my home land, as a country, where the sexual minorities’ rights are being “protected” or are in this or that stage of protection, was hard to do all by myself. Thanks to people who became my close friends, up to this moment thinking that Armenia is only a name of a character of famous Brazilian actress Arasi Balabanyan «Donna Armenia» from the TV serial “Rainha Da Sucata”, and now knowing for sure, that Ararat is a holy moutain, and that in 1915 armenian nation went through awful Genocide by Osmanian Turkey, decided to help me how to bring out and represent my country in this liberal society...

In the supermarket “Gonsalves Brothers” we bought a flat white towel, red paint ( as there was no pink), a mop, the useless part of which was rounded. In the result of our improvisation a flag was made with an inscription “PINK Armenia” in honour of our organization. There were enough of us to shout as loud as we could, that there are people in Armenian society ready to be among those who are able to accept and not to ignore people, who accept the life differently, the way they like.

The flag “PINK Armenia” was proudly and confidently waving in the sky together with the Brazilian national flag and also with the flag of the state. We moved on...

For full post - see PINK Armenia