State Department grants Flávio Bolsonaro an emotional support visa
The far-right Brazilian senator fled to Florida after losing to Lula, and Miami has opened a trauma-informed space for his feelings.
Miami International Airport has run out of beanbags. All fourteen went to a new electoral grief lounge for Flávio Bolsonaro, who flew to Florida after losing Brazil's presidential runoff to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The State Department says the senator will be issued visas. Local wellness staff have asked the public to stop calling this fleeing.
The lounge is quiet and dim. Television news is muted whenever Lula appears, with a content note warning of democracy. A Brazilian flag hangs folded so it cannot look at him. A weighted blanket rests on his chair, sized to the full mass of the popular vote. Nobody in the room is allowed to say the word "incumbent."
"He is not fleeing. He is moving toward his feelings, and Florida is where those feelings have always lived," said Dr. Wren Okafor-Halloway, a conflict doula with Miami-Dade's Office of Post-Electoral Wellness.
Some readers will ask why we hold space for a man whose politics many find harmful. That question is, honestly, a little bit violent. Care is not a reward for voting the right way.
Facilitators have invited Lula to write a letter of accountability for winning, using only "I" statements. They asked him to leave out the vote count, which the senator finds activating.
