Pardon me the amateurish edits on this clip but I wanted to share three key moments from Friday night's boxing match between Orlando "El Fénomeno" Cruz and Alan "The Bomber" Martinez.
That's not the way a gay boxer is supposed to act: The first key moment happened during the second round and it is one of those things that people in gender study classes love to deconstruct in 300-page analytical books.
For Cruz I assume it was simply an attempt to unnerve his opponent.
If you blink you might miss it but at the 6 second mark you'll see that Cruz is standing behind his opponent when he swiftly reaches out and slaps his butt. The crowd went wild even if I doubt Martinez noticed it.
The referee, in the meantime, walks over to Cruz and admonishes him for the gesture.
The moment packs power because this is not what boxing fans expect a gay man to do. To stand over his opponent and own him with a simple gesture.
Telemundo sportscaster Jessi Lozada seems at a loss for words at first but then says Cruz shouldn't have done it:
That could be a double-edged sword because it could bother and make his opponent that much more furious. If there comes a point at which he can hurt him he won't have mercy. It has an opposite effect: He's just pouring gasoline on a fire and there is no need for it.
Standing tall: That, of course, did not turn out to be what happened as Cruz dominated most rounds and emerged victorious by technical knock-out in the 6th round.
At the 46 second mark you can see the knock-out punch and at the 1 minute mark you will see how Cruz celebrates the victory as the referee calls it for him.
As his mother jumps for joy in the stands, Cruz climbs the ropes and salutes the crowd. He goes up a second time and makes sure the crowd takes notice of who he represents.
He points at the Puerto Rican flag on one side of his kilt-like trunks and then switches and points at the rainbow colored Puerto Rican flag.
And I have to say as a Latino gay man watching Cruz making sure the crowd knows exactly who he is at the point of victory is just incredibly moving. There are almost no words.
Family ties: The third moment comes at the 1:38 minute mark. In an October interview with the British newspaper The Guardian Cruz said that his relationship with his father since coming out had been somewhat strained.
My dad is more
difficult because of the macho thing. Now, it's better. He supports me
but… there is always a 'but'...
Cruz's grandmother had passed away four months before the fight and as he celebrated his victory the emotions seemed to catch up to him. He tried to hide his tears by kneeling down and facing one of the ring's corners until a man in a blue shirt approached him and helped him to stand back up.
That man was Cruz's father.
Cruz would later dedicate the victory to his grandmother.
After the fight: It is well known that most showbiz and sports figures sometimes receive their share of outsized adulation from their fans -- including dating proposals.
After the fight on Friday Cruz emerged from the Kissimmee Civic Center ready to meet a couple of friends from Florida. As he made his way out a male fan approached him and handed him a gift.
It was a pair of "Papi" brand underwear.
His friends through it was hilarious and asked Cruz to pose with them (photo credit: Dagmar Andrades).
Orlando Cruz gets a memento from Friday night's fight in Kissimmee (Photo credit: Dagmar Andrades)
A Dominican fan reacts: One of the persons who saw my blog post about the fight was Gióniver Castillo Santana from the Dominican Republic.
In July of last year Gióniver was almost arrested during a pride rally
in Santo Domingo for carrying a large flag he had designed to look like
the Dominican flag except he changed its colors to those of the rainbow
flag. Officers deemed it disrespectful to the nation and organizers of
the rally actually sided with the police. Apparently there is a law in the Dominican Republic that makes changing any of the nation's emblems punishable by law.
Watching
Cruz fight while proudly showing a Puerto Rican rainbow flag brought up
mixed emotions for him. He posted a GIF on Facebook (see right) and
said the following:
When I went out with
that [rainbow colored Dominican] flag I knew there was a chance I could
be arrested and that I would not get the help of the LGBT community,
but even though I knew I was at risk it didn't really matter to me. I
take strong stands because it is my hope that when Dominicans read my
words they'll want to change their ways.
He added:
What the LGBT community is missing is valor, they only think about
partying. We have to train the LGBT community to act with valor so that a
boy doesn't have to go out carrying a flag to give a little sense of
protest to a pride rally that only serves for people to party.
Extra: A Spanish-language post fight interview with Orlando Cruz and his mother and telenovela actress Cynthia Olavarria. via Behind the Ring.
UPDATE: A follow-up post including video of the three key queer moments of the fight has been posted here.
Orlando "El Fenomeno" Cruz next to his father after winning his 20th professional boxing match by TKO in the 6th round.
Puerto Rican featherweight boxer Orlando "The Phenomenon" Cruz (20-2-1, 10KO) defeated Mexican boxer Aalan "The Bomber" Martínez (14-2-1, 9KO) in a 6th round technical knock-out tonight that took place atthe Civic Center in Kissimmee, Florida.
Earlier today Cruz failed to make his weight by .4 ounces (weighing in at 126.4) which meant he lost the OMB's 126 lb. Latino Crown ranking but he still holds on to the number one ranking in the world which was officially announced today by the OMB.
After the fight he thanked a number of people including his trainers, his friends and "his LGBT community." He also got emotional when mentioning his grandmother - who passed away last year - and dedicated the victory to her.
During the fight he wore a multicolor boxing kilt with Puerto Rican flags on both sides. One of the flags was red, white and blue, the other flag's stripes reflected the color of the rainbow as a sign of gay pride.
As in the last fight, his mother was at the side of the boxing ring shouting encouragement throughout the fight. The venue was filled to capacity and attendees seemed to be overwhelmingly on Cruz's side throughout the fight.
After the fight he sent out a couple of messages on Twitter in Spanish:
Grx mi Dios x darme la victoria x que en ningun momento me dejaste solo mi abuelita a ti x que te senti en todo momento Te amo vieja.
— Orlando Cruz (@ElFenomenoCruz) March 16, 2013
A mi grupo de trabajo,P.R mi comunidad lgbt, mi gente de Quintana y mi familia grx x existir y ser parte de mi vida los quiero y los llevo.
— Orlando Cruz (@ElFenomenoCruz) March 16, 2013
My thanks to God for giving me the victory and for never abandoning my grandma and to her whom I felt next to me the entire time. I love you old lady.
To my work team, Puerto Rico, the LGBT community, my people from Quintana and my family: Thanks for being there and being part of my life. I love you and carry you with me.
Pop star Ricky Martin soon replied with his own tweet:
@elfenomenocruz hermano acabo de ver tu pelea. Felicidades. Tremendo orgullo boricua! Pa'lante.Truly amazing bit.ly/143FTES
— Ricky Martin (@ricky_martin) March 17, 2013
Bro, I just watched your fight. Congratulations. I feel such huge Puerto Rican pride! Pa'lante. Truly amazing.
Reportedly Orlando now has his eye on fighting Mikey Garcia for the WBO featherweight world championship belt although nothing has been made official yet.
You can follow Orlando on Facebook (here) or on Twitter (here).
If you have read any coverage of newly anointed Pope Francis this week and his views on LGBT issues you will no doubt be familiar with the following quotes (via GLAAD):
On Marriage Equality:
“Let's not be naive: This is not a simple political fight; it is a
destructive proposal to God's plan. This is not a mere legislative
proposal (that's just it's form), but a move by the father of lies that
seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.”
And yet, today the Associated Press reported the following:
According to the new pope's authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, [Jorge Mario]
Bergoglio was politically wise enough to know the church couldn't win a
straight-on fight against gay marriage, so he urged his bishops to lobby
for gay civil unions instead. It wasn't until his proposal was shot
down by the bishops' conference that he publicly declared what [Esteban] Paulon
described as the "war of God" — and the church lost the issue
altogether.
That was from the marriage equality fight in 2010 and it should be said that it was as a last stand against passage of the marriage equality law.
In an article published in Perfil on July 24 of 2010 an anonymous source claimed Bergoglio felt "used" in the run up to the marriage equality vote and hoped to eventually regain his progressive reputation by letting it be known he wasn't a homophobe.
The anonymous source also brings up Bergoglio's role in the passage of the 2002 same-sex civil union law that was approved by the Buenos Aires legislature.
An excerpt:
After the law was passed, the Jesuit once more sought refuge in the silence of prayer. In the meantime, those who are near to him insist in presenting him as a progressive bishop, perhaps even from the "left", who had never used those terms when speaking about those issues.
"He doesn't have anything against gays nor transgender individuals and he never discriminated them during his duties as a pastor. What prevails within him is christian charity," is the way a confident defends him.
And they add that Bergoglio felt trapped between two fires -- that of the government and that of his internal rival Héctor Aguer, the conservative archbishop of La Plata -- and he reacted as "a soldier of God."
Kirchner entered the game and she played to kill or be killed in the tradition of Saint Ignatius," say his closest friends.
In 2002 he has backed civil unions when they were passed by the Buenos Aires legislature and in April of that year he had proposed that the Church do the same on a national level.
What happened between April of 2002 and now, who is the real Bergoglio? It's a question that is often asked by the Government and within the church.
I have yet to find independent reports that Bergoglio did indeed back civil unions in Buenos Aires back in 2002.That law made Buenos Aires the first city in Latin America to adopt such laws.
UPDATE (3/18/13): Here is further indication Bergoglio would have backed civil unions for same-sex couples in exchange for scuttling the marriage equality law that Argentina adopted in July of 2010.
Just four months before the legislative vote, Bergoglio's spokesperson Federico Walls went on the record with Info News and said the following:
We do not seek to discriminate against unions between same-sex individuals. We don’t have a fanatic vision. What we are asking is that the laws be respected. We believe that we must propose more comprehensive civil union bill than currently exists, but not marriage (H/t: Millenial).
My friend Mariano Lake writes to me from Argentina:
For Bergoglio, backing civil unions was a way to deny gays the right to marry and that's what the Argentine LGBT Federation fought for: The same rights with the same names. Bergoglio did not want us to be able to marry and a civil union was not a marriage.
It's rare to see a cable network devote more than a few minutes to Latin American LGBT issues particularly during prime-time hours so it was refreshing to see Rachel Maddow spend five minutes last night talking about how marriage equality became law in Argentina back in 2010.
The Rachel Maddow, March 14, 2013
The groundbreaking law has gained new relevance this week after Argentine Jesuit priest Jorge Mario Bergoglio was named as the new Pope and christened Pope Francis. He was also the leading opponent of the Argentine marriage equality law back on 2010 as Cardinal of Buenos Aires - - and ended up on the losing side of history.
While Maddow went on to discuss what this all means for the future of the Catholic church you should also take a look at this Michael K. Lavers story at The Washington Blade on how LGBT advocates in Argentina are receiving the news ("Argentine gay activist Esteban Paulón criticizes Pope Francis").
And here is a statement released yesterday by the organization Esteban Paulón leads: The Argentine LGBT Federation (FALGBT):
The appointment of a Pope who affirmed Marriage Equality was the Plan of the Devil, is a bad sign for LGBTI rights
The Argentine LGBT Federation expresses its deep regret for the
appointment of the Archbishop of the City of Buenos Aires, Jorge
Bergoglio, as the new Pope.
The election of Jorge Bergoglio as the new Pope marks a clear desire of the Vatican to radicalize its position against the recognition of diverse family structures.
Bergoglio was twice the President of the Argentine Episcopal Conference and led the campaigns against the laws of Marriage Equality (2010) and Gender Identity (2011/2012), obstructing the legislative advances obtained through the hard work of the FALGBT and the sexual diversity movement of Argentina.
During the campaign for Marriage Equality, Bergoglio called
it "the plan of the devil" and led a crusade against it and called it
“God’s War.”
During his public arguments against Marriage Equality in 2010, Bergoglio stated that “in the next few weeks the Argentine people will have to confront a situation whose result can gravely hurt the family: A same-sex marriage bill."
At stake, he claimed, was “the identity and the survival of the family: father, mother, and children. At stake is the life of so many children who will be deprived from the human development that God wanted by giving them a father and a mother. At stake is a direct rejection of the law of God, also engraved in our hearts."
In those same declarations Bergoglio expressed: “We remember what God himself said to his people in a moment of much anguish: ‘This war is not yours but God’s.’ May they assist, defend, and accompany him in God’s War.”
Currently, Pope Francis is an active militant against the right for secure, legal and free abortion, still awaiting debate in the Argentine Parliament despite the enormous social and parliamentary consensus that the ruling has.
Likewise, the performance of Bergoglio during the last military dictatorship is being investigated, especially regarding the theft of babies and disappearance of priests of liberation theology.
In that respect Esteban Paulón, president of the FALGBT, expressed:
"While we have no expectations of change from the Vatican the choice of
someone who promoted 'God's War' against marriage equality is
disappointing. His radical position on this issue, on the gender
identity law and on safe, legal and free
abortion, keeps us from being optimistic."
Paulón added, “Perhaps the fact that Pope Francis has lived for the last two and a half years in a country where Marriage Equality is a reality and none of the catastrophes he predicted have come to pass might make him reconsider his negative stand on issues related to equality. At the very least, he will no longer be able to make arguments from a lack of knowledge as Argentina today is a more equal and peaceful country in which families have been strengthened and diversified thanks to the Marriage Equality and Gender Identity laws."
Finally, Paulón stated “beyond anyone's personal convictions, the Church continues to hold great sway on global public opinion and on the decisions made by other countries. It would be extremely positive if the Vatican, under Pope Francis, changed its ways and finally supported the United Nations Declaration Against the Penalization of Homosexuality by signing on to the statement."
A month before the Venezuelan electorate goes to the polls to choose their next president in the wake of Hugo Chávez' death the topic of homophobia in the campaign continues to be front page news.
On Monday Hugo Chavez' chosen successor and interim president Nicolás Maduro seemed to echo some homophobic statements from the past by calling himself a someone "who does like women" which some took as a swipe against opposition party candidate Henrique Capriles.
In the past, members of Maduro's campaign have openly questioned Capriles' sexuality and Maduro himself called him a "faggot" during a Chávez campaign rally in March of 2012. Days later Maduro went on television to deny his use of the expression had been in any way homophobic and to apologize if anyone was offended by it.
Calling themselves the "sexually diverse" which is also the term used by Maduro to refer to the LGBT community a couple of organizations associated with with the Chávez revolution came to Maduro's defense. Luis Menenses of the Sexually Diverse Revolutionary Front of Zulia said that media had taken Maduro's most recent comments out of context and willingly left off the last part of his statement which they highlighted in capital letters: "I am someone who likes women, and here I have one. It's great how one feels when one kisses a woman OR THE PERSON ONE LOVES" [Video].
The Front argued that those last few words which were omitted in most reports proved that Maduro's comments on Monday were not a homophobic dig at Capriles and instead framed it as inclusive language that embraced forms of love other than heterosexual.
By then Capriles himself had gone on TV and blasted Maduro for his comments calling it homophobic exclusion "absolute fascism" and telling viewers to demand respect for all. "You cannot talk of inclusion if there is exclusion," Capriles said [Video].
"If that's how you want to attack me, let it be," Capriles said, "but from here on I will always demand respect for all. You cannot talk of inclusion if there is exclusion."
Last evening Maduro responded and denied he ever alluded in any way to Caprile's personal life during his comments on Monday.
[Full translated transcript after commentary]
Call it chutzpah. In denying he ever was alluding to Capriles' personal life On Monday he takes several opportunities in yesterday's response to express respect for Capriles "whatever he might be" - as in gay or straight.
In "respecting" Capriles, Maduro also never manages to use his opponent's name once during the five minute statement. Instead, at various times he calls him the "opposition candidate," "Candidate Mr. Loser," "a prissy man with an aristocratic last name" and "Prince of New York."
As Queerty posted today Maduro has previously joked that Capriles spends time in New York with a close friend and last week, as the site puts it "Jacqueline Faria, a senior official in Chavez’s PSUV party, tweeted that
Capriles was in Manhattan because 'it’s easier to come out of the
closet in New York than in Los Teques,' the capital city of Miranda,
where Capriles was governor."
As he has done in the past, Maduro denies he is a homophobe. He explains:
When you live in a town you have to be respectful of the private lives
of all human beings. And in terms of sexuality - what today is known as
the concept of the sexually diverse - they are the same friends we have
known all of our lives - male and female - from the time we were kids.
Because we have always respected them.
Maduro also says that if he were gay he'd be proud of it:
If I were gay I'd take ownership of it with pride
and shout it to the four winds and I would have no problem loving whoever I had to love
with my heart.
He then adds another not so veiled dig at Capriles:
Because the worst homophobe is one who is
gay and discriminates against his own.
It's similar to a foreman in a slave-owner's farm. A black traitor who
whips an African man's back. That's the worst homophobe: He who denies
his identity and discriminates against his equals.
He also claims Chávez made a failed attempt to amend the constitution to include anti-discriminatory language:
We introduced a
constitutional amendment to acknowledge their existence and the supreme
respect the nation has towards our sexually diverse brothers and sisters
- and our opponents and the right called for a vote against that
amendment.
Maduro is right that there is a conservative right wing in Venezuela who would love to see Capriles win and would oppose any advance in the recognition of LGBT rights in Venezuela. Neither Capriles on Monday nor Maduro yesterday mentioned any LGBT-friendly legislation they would support if either one wins the election.
What Maduro fails to mention is that Chávez never made it a personal priority to push the constitutional amendment and that the key foe against it was not the right wing who did not really have the political power under Chávez to oppose it but the Catholic church and their legislative followers on the right and on the left.
Maduro did mention the Catholic church last night in a way that captured worldwide attention and it's a telling statement about whose allegiances Maduro might follow if elected president.
We know that our commander ascended to the
heights and is face-to-face with Christ. Something influenced the choice of a South American pope, someone
new arrived at Christ's side and said to him: 'Well, it seems to us
South America's time has come.'
That's right. In death, Chávez had a hand in the choice for a new pope.
Chávez, whose death has been increasingly mourned as that of a religious martyr, increasingly used religious rhetoric during his final campaign and as his death got nearer.
Maduro has embraced Chávez religious fervor as his own as he campaigns for the Venezuelan vote. But the truth is that when it comes to LGBT rights in Venezuela there is no guarantee that Capriles wouldn't do the same if elected.
Here are Maduro's full comments on homophobia from last night:
I said certain things about my relationship with [my wife] Celia and they have begun to manipulate them. So the losing candidate from the tiny minority that is the embittered oligarchy showed up.
I agree with Gustavo Pereira: Our flag and our valor is love and our victory will come when love prevails over rancor and hate. When true peace prevails. Peace along with justice and equality.
The type of peace in which we can come to love each other as one and in which she can love her and he can love him and others can love others.
So don't let them come and say I am homophobic, "erreteromophobic," "heterodophobic" or start to invent other nicknames. I did not delve into...
Camarades! The first thing I have to say is that when you live in a town you have to be respectful of the private lives of all human beings. And in terms of sexuality - what today is known as the concept of the sexually diverse - they are the same friends we have known all of our lives - male and female - from the time we were kids. Because we have always respected them.
So much so that we introduced a constitutional amendment to acknowledge their existence and the supreme respect the nation has towards our sexually diverse brothers and sisters - and our opponents and the right called for a vote against that amendment, for example.
So don't be so manipulative, members of the bourgeois media. We show absolute respect because each person has ownership of his or her life.
Second: I did not delve into the sexual life of the opposition candidate. I did not delve into the issue - it was him who assumed it was about him so he responded against me as if I'd said something about his life.
I respect him and I've said it for a long time as well. One time I used a certain word and I apologize for using that word. I have already apologized several times. You remember the term I used, no?
But what happens in Venezuela is that the when that word that escaped from my soul...
Because they want to present themselves as snobs who cannot stop... and I apologize to snobs who are patriotic and there are lots of them as well - but I am talking about pro-imperialist snobs...
Please forgive me for that but let me welcome the male and female snobs who are patriotic and pro-Chavez - and we have a lot of them... a lot [laughs].
Now, this mister - who I've previously called a "prissy man with an aristocratic last name" and "Prince of New York" as he has yet to say how he managed to buy the five million dollar apartment he owns there and will never say it - he showed up full of rage towards me and said I was delving into his personal life.
I have never delved into it, I respect him. Whatever he is, I respect him.
And we all must respect him. And I am being absolutely serious: We all have to respect him. But don't be such a manipulator! Don't be such a manipulator!
Each one of us takes... I take ownership of my life with pride and I respect each person who takes ownership of their life with pride. Be whatever it may be.
If I were - and please don't clap your hands and I am going to say this with all of my heart - if I were gay I'd take ownership of it with pride and shout it to the four winds and I would have no problem loving whomever I had to love with my heart.
Because the worst homophobe is one who is gay and discriminates against his own.
It's similar to a foreman in a slave-owner's farm. A black traitor who whips an African man's back. That's the worst homophobe: He who denies his identity and discriminates against his equals.
We have respect for all. I have not delved into your life, candidate Mr. Loser. Now you'll face another full defeat and this one will be that much worse because what we will achieve on April 14th will be the greatest victory known to this country and we will do it in the name of Hugo Chávez. In his memory. For the example he gave. For his strength. For the greatness of the historical legacy he left us.
Well, compatriots. Look at this: This is how we govern.
A couple of days before Argentina became the first Latin American country to pass a nationwide marriage equality law in 2010 president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner broke her silence on the landmark bill and secured its passage by throwing hell full support behind it. It was an impassioned speech carried live on Argentine television from a diplomatic trip to China and a full-throttled response to increasingly rabid homophobic opposition by Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio.
Transcript:
To begin with, I am a bit surprised about the tone, the tenor, and the content the dialogue has taken. The truth is that it's worrisome to listen to expressions such as 'God's Battle', 'The Work of the Devil', things which actually bring us back to the times of the Inquisition, to Medieval Times, it seems to me. Particularly coming from those who should promote peace, tolerance, diversity and dialogue. Or at least that's what they've always said in their statements. And all of a sudden [we have] this aggressive language, this dismissive language invoking 'natural law' arguments.
To bring it back to our own history, when the civil code was approved, Vélez Sársfield has taken 'marriage' from Canon law. That's why they could only get married through the church! There was no possibility for people to get married in a civil registry in Argentina.
When immigration began - there are many people who are not Catholic, who are not affiliated with any religion, or are anarchists, or Communists, or are Jewish or Muslim - and it turns out that the only way they could get married was through Catholic rites.
And so, a reform to the civil code was proposed, which was incorporated in 1,888 through which 'civil marriages' were created.
I sincerely believe what's being presented before the current norm is something that the community already has. I believe it's fair - it's fair - to recognize this right for the minorities. And I believe it would be a terrible distortion of democracy if the majorities - the actions of those majorities - denied rights to those minorities.
But what worries me the most is the tone in which these issues are being discussed, invoking questions such as the Devil, or the war.
I heard someone talk about 'God's War'! As if we were still in the time of the Crusades! I can just imagine Roland going to conquer the Holy Sepulcher! The truth is I don't believe this is good...It's not good because it establishes, as a society, a place which I don't think any of us wants to have.
We are all willing to debate, discuss, dissent, but do it within a rational frame, without stigmatizing others because they think differently, and, fundamentally, also without violating the constitution.
But in reality I don't think it's a question that should be taken lightly. We are talking about whether we are going to be a society which recognizes the rights of minorities. This is the axis. Or if we are going to require that when someone signs official paperwork, instead of writing an ID, they should write "gay" or "lesbian" so some public official can say "Yes, I will see you", "I won't see you", "You have the right to in vitro fertilization", "No, you don't have the rights".
Bergoglio is not mentioned by name but he had just made the statements that the fight against same-sex marriage was "God's battle" and that those fighting for it were doing the "work of the Devil".
Bergoglio became Pope Francis today. He has chosen to downplay his opposition to the recognition of LGBT rights since he lost the marriage equality battle in 2010 which means that he might have learned a lesson from the experience. Or it might mean that the Vatican hopes that they will be able to hold the line and perhaps roll back significative advances that have taken place in Latin America when it comes to LGBT rights.
As the Venezuelan election heats up in the wake of Hugo Chavez' death ugly recriminations have flown back and forth between those who support chosen interim president Nicolás Maduro and opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.
Some of Capriles' supporters have taken to denigrating Maduro for his former life as a poor bus driver exposing existing classist bias while some of Maduro's supporters have revived recent allegations that Capriles is gay and attacked him for his Jewish heritage even though Capriles calls himself a Catholic man.
"I do have a wife, you know? I do like women!" he told the crowd with his wife Cilia Flores at his side, who has served as attorney general but is stepping down to join her husband's campaign.
Though single, Capriles has had various high-profile girlfriends in the past. He scoffs at the personal insults, saying they illustrate the government's aggressive mindset.
Following those remarks by Maduro this morning a number of LGBT Venezuelans spent the day on social media like Twitter urging Capriles to publicly denounce Maduro's homophobia. Tonight he did just that.
Capriles:
I'd like to send a respectful and considerate message in rejection to the homophobic remarks made by Nicolás [Maduro] today. It's not the first time. I believe in a society without exclusion and that's the way I express it to the country. A society where no one feels excluded based on the way they think, their race, their creed, their sexual orientation. People should go out and reject it.
That's fascism. Absolute fascism. From the extreme right.
If that's how you want to attack me, let it be. But from here on I will always demand respect for all Venezuelans. Because the society that we want to build in Venezuela is a society without exclusion.
You cannot talk of inclusion if there is exclusion. There should be overwhelming rejection of something like that.
It's not the first time that Maduro has called Capriles' sexuality into question. In April of 2012 when Capriles was running against Chávez the then Vice President used the word "faggot" to describe the opposition.
Maduro back in 2012:
That's the ilk of these stuck-up faggot fascists who pretend they can win the elections as they face the Venezuelan public. But they have yet to overcome our community's lineage as liberators and they will never do.
The outrage was such that Maduro appeared on television a few days later with a semi-apology.
Maduro:
Some have tried to manipulate it. What I said at that moment was in the heat of remembering all the passion generated when you recall how all these stuck-up fascists believed they had all power in their hands and went out on a fascist hunt to capture, imprison and kill the people. And how they dared do something that not even Pinochet and his dictatorship dared to do: Attack the Cuban Embassy. In the heat of all that I used some expressions such as 'stuck-up' - and I went further than that.
We all respect the militant sexual diversity community that is active within the Venezuelan United Socialist Party, our organization. Tomorrow, the Great Patriotic Pole will establish the national team and the national organization for sexual diversity. Even in the Foreign Ministry - where I work - they always have known that we respect them and that we have done our work without treating them any different.
In any case, and let me say this to you, if it's the product of a genuine sentiment or a product of whatever it is, if someone from the sexual diversity community felt bothered or discriminated against, I apologize. I am sorry. There is room, within that expression, for someone to have felt somehow offended by an expression that had a different connotation... There is no reason why I should delve into anyone's sexual condition. That of our adversaries, the opposition's candidate, their leadership or anyone. Each person is free to do what they want with their lives to achieve happiness. I would never ever get involved with Capriles Randoski or his condition whatever it may be. It's not up to me to define it. That's why I am offering an apology to whomever felt offended or attacked.
That apology would probably carried more weight if supporters of Chávez had not systematically used the same word to describe Capriles at campaign events. This one goes back to 2010 (lower volume on your computer).
Pablo de Miranda of the United Socialist Party:
We are here to tell the truth to your followers. You are a man without shame, a traitor, a fascist, a cunning thief and a homosexual. And we are saying this because we have proof that even when you opted for a lady named [...] you declared yourself gay to that lady. We have her name, we are giving it to you so you know exactly the kind of governor we have in this state.
No mincing words in that one.
In fourteen years of Chávez rule, the advancement of LGBT rights in Venezulea came to a standstill. Unlike Maduro he never - to my knowledge - expressed a single derogatory word about members of the LGBT community but he also never lifted a single finger to back LGBT-friendly legislation.
Capriles has an uphill battle to emerge victorious when the special presidential election takes place thirty days from now. If he does, his statements tonight mean that he will have the responsibility of proving he means what he says by enacting pro-LGBT legislation soon after he takes the presidency. If not, Maduro has to prove that he truly means to represent all Venezuelans and not just those who support him.
On March 5th - after Chávez death was announced and before the recent homophobic skirmishes - Maduro said that the "sexually diverse" would be guaranteed protections under a future socialist government.
Maduro:
We will continue to offer guarantees on all levels. From the highest ranks of the political-military leadership of the country to all levels of the popular movement: Community councils, communes, urban committees, water resource committees, electric resource committees, grassroots farming organizations, all grassroots community organizations, the Great Patriotic Pole [political party], the social labor movements, women's rights movements, young people, the sexually-diverse, professionals, technical engineers.
The entire nation has constructed the Great Patriotic Pole. From the [political] revolutionary parties - all of them - the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and their militants and leaders throughout the nation, the Communist Party of Venezuela, the People's Electorate Movement, the UPB, the Tupamaro, Podemos, PPT. All compatriots, all activated, as one man and one woman. As a single patriotic fist. United in Chávez. United in the liberator's dream. United in the construction of a nation of all and for all
UPDATE (3/12/13): Since writing this post on March 11th, several Venezuelan LGBT and HIV prevention organizations including AXA: Activistas por el Arcoiris, Alianza Lambda de Venezuela, ACCSI VIH/Sida and Union Afirmativa have strongly condemned Maduro's words and applauded Capriles for his statements. For the most part these are organizations who were also strongly critical of the Chávez government and what they saw as inaction on LGBT issues.
Throughout the years the Chávez government did count with strong support from a few LGBT organizations including Movimiento Gay Revolucionario de Venezuela and the Frente Sexo-Diverso Revolucionario de Zulia.
To all LGBT, feminist, Afro-decedent, indigenous and disability rights activists, women, men, children, everyone:
The Frente Sexo-Diverso Revolucionario de Zulia responds to all the media trash being lobbed against Nicolás Maduro for statements made yesterday March 11th in Caracas during his registration as a presidential candidate.
His statements were not at all homophobic and here is what he said textually: A mi si me Gustan las Mujeres, que Rico es Besar a una Mujer o al ser que UNO AMA ["I am someone who likes women, it feels great to kiss a woman or the person ONE LOVES"].
That is a reference to the sexually diverse community. The Frente will vote in favor of Maduro based on our loyalty to Chávez.
In addition, his statements on Tuesday, March 5th of 2013 [ed. - see the last video posted above] were very clear: "The sexually diverse are important for the construction of the nation" as Maduro said on the National Channel in front of the civil-military leadership, the presidential Cabinet and the 20 Bolivarian Governors of Venezuela.
Thanks to the Bolivarian Government as led by Commandant Hugo Chávez - to which Maduro has belonged for a long time and continues to belong - they have given an opening the sexually diverse in all social and political areas.
There have been articles within laws and statements against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity submitted before the United Nations and the Organization of American States signed and ratified by Venezuela as a country that guarantees the human rights of the sexually diverse.
In the Nation's Plan, Objective 2.2 says "To build an equal and just society".
Objective 5.3.3.2 says "To put special emphasis on gender relations. Based on this, to support the creation of work groups constituted by women with the goal of reflecting on their family and work life and produce strategies of resistance and liberation, since they suffer the brunt of the dominant culture where the woman is relegated to a secondary role and often suffer explicit forms of violence. The same applies to sexually diverse groups (homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons) forced to live in repressive and humiliating conditions where the only path is the frivolity offered by the capitalist world".
The Frente Sexo-Diverso Revolucionario de Zulia will work to bring Nicolás Maduro to the presidency by providing more than 5,000 votes of the sexually diverse just from Zulia alone.
Signed: Luis Menenses in representation of the Frente Sexo-Diverso Revolucionario de Zulia. Until victory always, we will live on and we will win victory. "Chávez lives, the fight continues".
I'm also reminded that when it comes homophobic expressions, the left doesn't have the ground covered. A right-wing newspaper editor from Spain alleged that Chávez himself was gay in an OpEd that hardly hid his homophobic intention. Chávez's response? He said he was too macho to be gay.
Sodomy laws banning sexual activity between two consenting adults of the same-gender have mostly disappeared from the entire American continent and the two countries that still enshrine such discriminatory laws in their books could very well scrap them this year.
Although those who defend the laws argue that they are meant to protect local customs and morals these shameful laws can actually be traced back to British colonial rule. But the notion that homosexuality is foreign to their cultures and that powerful imperialist nations are trying to impose their immorality by pressuring to repeal these laws has resonance with large swaths of the population.
Which brings us to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
The fiery American preacher is not exactly known for being gay-friendly and in May he riled against Barack Obama after the president came out in favor of same-sex marriage calling him "the first president that sanctioned what the scriptures forbid."
Last week found Farrakhan visiting Belize at the invitation of some of the same religious leaders who are calling for the Supreme Court to let the current sodomy law remain standing. Conservative Christian television network Plus TV captured his response.
His comment:
How many of you see same-sex marriage and are falling for the
pressure that's being put on government to sanction something that God
don't sanction. America is attaching aid to you rewriting your
constitution, rewriting your laws and because you become a whore for
money and forsaken the principles and yet you put your hand on the Bible
when you take your oath of office. For what?
Caleb Orozco
Let's be clear here: Although local LGBT advocates would like their relationships to be legally recognized, same sex marriage is not at play when the Belize Supreme Court takes up the issue of the sodomy laws in May. He also falsely alleges that aid from the United States will be cut unless laws are changed to accommodate gays and lesbians.
What Farrakhan is doing is urging legislators to keep a law that punishes and jails gay Belize citizens for who they are. Nothing less, nothing more. Caleb Orozco, the most visible openly gay advocate in Belize, says it will be an uphill battle to get the Supreme Court to strike down the sodomy laws but he has hope that they will rule on the right side of history. The organization he leads, the United Belize Advocacy Movement, was the entity that brought a challenge to the nation's sodomy statute before the Supreme Court back in 2010.
His visibility has brought some risk. In February of 2012 he was assaulted and hit with a beer bottle. United Nations rapporteurs Frank La Rue and Margaret Sekaggya stepped in back in August after local authorities seemed to dismiss the attack and asked the Belize government to explain their apparent inaction.
To my knowledge, Orozco will be the only openly gay person to be allowed to present arguments against the Belize sodomy statutes when the Supreme Court holds their hearings in May.
Orozco has said that it will be an uphill battle for the Court to strike down the laws but that he still has hope that it will rule on the right side of history.
In this video from 2012, Orozco and other members of the United Belize Advocacy Movement, talk about the reason they launched a "dignity rights" campaign.
It begs the question: Who is Farrakhan standing for? The politically powerful right wing churches that invited him to visit Belize? Or the disenfranchised and legally unrecognized LGBT community in Belize whose own government would rather deny they exist.
In a landmark 3-2 ruling released after a session held today, the First Chamber of the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice has determined that homophobic expressions such as "maricones" or "puñal" are not only offensive and discriminatory but also not protected under under freedom of expression laws.
The full text of the ruling will not be available until a later date but a press statement released by the Court states the following (my full translation):
In a session held on March 6th of the current year, the First Chamber of the nation's Supreme Court of Justice - at the request of Justice Arturo Zaldivar Lelo de Larrea - resolved an issue in which it analyzed the complex conflict between freedom of expression and discriminatory demonstrations - particularly homophobic expressions - a first for Mexican jurisprudence.
In finding a resolution for the Direct Appeal for Revision 2806/2012 (Amparo Directo en Revisión 2806/2012) the Chamber's starting point was the strong influence language has on people's perception of reality and which can cause prejudice that can take root in society through expressions which take for granted the marginalization of certain individuals or groups. In this introductory stage, the Chamber also studied the role of dominant discourses and stereotypes. Thus, in the opinion of the Chamber, the language used to offend or disqualify certain groups gain the characteristic of being discriminatory.
In this sense, the First Chamber determined that homophobic expressions or - in other words the frequent allegations that homosexuality is not a valid option but an inferior condition - constitute discriminatory statements even if they are expressed jokingly, since they can be used to encourage, promote and justify intolerance against gays.
For this reason, the Chamber determined that the terms used in this specific case - made up of the words "maricones" and "puñal" - were offensive. These are expressions which are certainly deeply rooted in the language of Mexican society but the truth is that the practices of a majority of participants of a society cannot trump violations of basic rights.
In addition, the First Chamber determined that these expressions were irrelevant since their usage was not needed in resolving the dispute taking place as related to the mutual criticism between two journalists from Puebla. Therefore it was determined that the expressions "maricones" and "puñal", just as they were used in this specific case, were not protected by the Constitution.
It should be noted that the First Chamber does not hold that certain expressions which could be taken as having homophobic intent in abstract can never be validly used in scientific research or in artistic works. That does not, in itself, imply employing hate speech.
To conclude, it should be noted that this resolution is consistent with the various First Chamber rulings on freedom of expression and the right to one's honor since they set the parameters for the analysis of such rights. They are consistent in establishing that offensive and impertinent expressions are not protected by the Constitution and the current case offers and update.
The vote in this decision is as follows: 3 votes in favor (Ministers Pardo Rebolledo, Sánchez Cordero de García Villegas and Zaldívar Lelo de Larrea) and two votes against (Ministers Cossio Díaz and Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena).
In 2010 the owner of the Puebla newspaper Síntesis took the owner of rival publication Intolerancia to court and charged him for causing him "moral damage" (I am not a legal expert but I assume it's similar to accusing someone of defamation).
Intolerancia publisher Enrique Núñez Quiroz had written and published a column in which he referred to Síntesis publisher Armando Prida Huerta as a "puñal" (a slang term used in certain regions of Mexico akin to calling someone a fag) and in which he claimed all the people who worked for Síntesis were "maricones" (faggots).
Two lower courts ruled in favor of Prida and ordered Nuñez Quiroz to pay damages and, on appeal, the case reached the Supreme Court.
La Jornada indicates that the ruling might be limited to the use of homophobic expressions in media when the intent is to cause derogatory harm. Their interpretation of the ruling is that "the words maricón and puñal when used in a journalistic article constitute discriminatory terminology and are part of 'homophobic' discourse towards gay people."
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Family ties: The third moment comes at the 1:38 minute mark. In an October interview with the British newspaper The Guardian Cruz said that his relationship with his father since coming out had been somewhat strained. 
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