ITN: Mario Acosta-Velez, Spain's weddings, Chicago shootings, La Mega

All these stories have run recently on English language media so... no need to translate them (Yay!)

Cover Man: DC's Metro Weekly profiles Latino gay activist Mario Acosta-Velez, President of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, member of DC's Human Rights Commission, Executive Director of the Latino Civil Rights Center and Board Member of Gente Latina de Ambiente (GELAAM). A few months ago Metro Weekly also featured a cover story on DC Latina transgender activist Ruby Corado, so kudos to Metro Weekly for featuring some of our own.

Why not U.S.?: The Advocate takes a look at why a mostly Catholic country such as Spain was able to allow same-sex couples to marry throughout the nation even as the United States continues struggling with the issue.

No arrests: The Windy City Times takes a look at a Martin Luther King Day march and press conference held in Chicago's South Side in light of the New Year's Eve shooting that left six gay men with bullet wounds (all six survived but authorities have yet to arrest anyone).

Mega shocker: Finally, the Spanish-language radio station airwaves in New York are in an upheaval after the recent departure of popular morning shock-jock Luis Jimenez from the top rated "El Vacilon de la Mañana" on La Mega (97.9FM) with his partner, Moonshadow, indicating that he might follow. For more than ten years we have criticized the incredibly homophobic content on which the show traded but the criticism mostly fell on deaf ears and was dismissed by the radio station in consideration of just how big a cash-cow it had become for them.

Unfortunately, Jimenez' departure is not a sign that Spanish language radio is waking up to their responsibility to avoid extremely obscene material in the mornings. I guess it's no big surprise that money was the key reason for the Mega-break up: He will now get an annual salary of $5 million dollars for Univision radio.

Puerto Rico's El Vocero says that a local radio personality, Frankie Jay, has signed up to replace Jimenez. Puerto Rico Para Tod@s' Pedro Julio Serrano tells us that the new DJ stayed away from homophobic fare while building a radio following in the island, which means that "El Vacilon" might just change a bit. We'll have to wait and see.