Natural History Museum Cancels Event Honoring Brazil's Leader

Update: The American Museum of Natural History announced Monday that the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce event honoring Bolsonaro will not be held at the museum.

Here's the museum's full statement:

"With mutual respect for the work & goals of our individual organizations, we jointly agreed that the Museum is not the optimal location for the Brazilian-Am. Chamber of Commerce gala dinner. This traditional event will go forward at another location on the original date & time."

Original article:

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A planned gala at the American Museum of Natural History in honor of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro — who has advocated for pushing indigenous people out of the Amazon, rolling back deforestation regulations and cutting scientific research in his home country — thrust the museum into controversy, according to reports.

The museum published a statement Saturday thanking those who have professed outrage at the event — hosted by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce — and stating, "we want you to know that we understand and share your distress."

The statement clarified that the museum itself did not invite Bolsonaro to be honored, but instead is just the venue for the third-party event.

"We are deeply concerned about the stated policy aims of the current Brazilian administration, and we are actively working to understand our options related to this event," the museum's statement reads.

Museum staff and the larger scientific community expressed anger and outrage following reports that Bolsonaro would be honored as the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce's "Person of the Year" gala held in the museum's Hall of Ocean Life. Gothamist was the first publication to report on the gala being held at the museum.

One curator at the museum, Dr. Susan Perkins, told Gothamist: "Anything that happens in the museum reflects on us, and Bolsonaro represents just about everything we oppose."

Scientists and graduate students affiliated with the museum sent an open letter to museum officials demanding the gala be canceled, Gothamist reported, but the museum hasn't taken action. A protest is planned at the museum for Saturday, April 20 and an online petition asking museum officials to cancel the event has garnered more than 23,000 signatures.

Even Mayor Bill de Blasio weighed in during his weekly "Ask the Mayor" segment on WNCY. De Blasio described the event as "really troubling" and said that Bolsonaro needs to be "confronted at all turns."

"This guy is a very dangerous human being, and he's dangerous not just because of his overt racism and homophobia but because he is unfortunately the person with the most ability to impact what happens to the Amazon going forward, and if the Amazon is desecrated and destroyed as a part of our global eco-system, we are all in grievous danger," De Blasio said on WNYC.