A recent study has revealed that the election of Jair Bolsonaro, a Brazilian politician known for his controversial and openly homophobic views, as president in 2018 led to a temporary increase in the number of same-sex marriages across the country. The surge was most noticeable in regions where Bolsonaro had strong voter support. The research, conducted by scholars from the Universities of Tübingen and Valencia, as well as the EBS University for Business and Law in Oestrich-Winkel, was published in the Journal of Population Economics. The researchers analyzed data from nearly 5,000 Brazilian towns and municipalities, looking at a 36-month period before and a 12-month period after the first round of the 2018 presidential election on October 7. They compared the number of same-sex marriages in areas with high and low support for Bolsonaro. The month of September 2018, just before the election, was used as a baseline to measure changes in the trend of same-sex marriages. The number of same-sex marriages increased significantly between October 2018 and January 2019, when Bolsonaro was inaugurated. The sharpest rise occurred in December 2018, just before he took office. In areas where Bolsonaro received 10 percentage points more of the vote, the number of same-sex marriages nearly doubled compared to the reference month in September 2018. This was a marked contrast to the previous three years, when the number of such marriages had been relatively stable. Following the initial surge, the number of same-sex marriages gradually returned to its pre-election level, but it did not fall below that level. This suggests that the marriages that took place during the peak were largely from couples who had not previously planned to marry. The study's authors suggest that concerns about losing the legal right to marry, along with the benefits of marriage such as social benefits, health insurance, inheritance rights, and tax advantages, influenced the decision. They also note that more lesbian couples than gay couples married during this time, possibly because women are generally more risk-averse than men, according to co-author Sara Parente. This risk aversion, combined with the perceived threat of losing legal protections, likely contributed to the rise in same-sex marriages.