When Latino pop stars turn their back on our rights

Yesterday something seemingly innocuous rubbed me off the wrong way on Twitter.  Well-known Mexican actress and singer Laura León was being interviewed live on Chicago's Homofrecuencia when she made the following comment, in Spanish:

For me, [the LGBT community] has given me their all, they are very creative people" [italics mine].

Or at least that's what she said in Spanish according to what a friend who was listening to the show and reporting about it on Twitter.

Nothing wrong with that, right? But if gays being creative creatures is a pretty harmless stereotype, when you hear one Latina starlet after another use the exact same phrase in Spanish to describe why they love the gays it can get pretty damn annoying.  Specially when they are promoting a tour of gay venues, as Ms. León was doing (there are shows in Chicago tomorrow, in Hollywood on Friday and in San Diego on Saturday).

To Ms. León's credit, she apparently went on to say she supported marriage rights for gay couples in Mexico, so her love for the gays might go further than appreciating us as a pretty creative bunch. It's certainly leagues ahead of Mexican singer Paquita La Del Barrio who famously said she, too, respected the gays, but argued in the same breath, that orphans would be better off dead than be adopted by a gay couple. 

Pretty innocuous stuff, no? 

Yup, I wasn't even going to write about it - except for something posted earlier today at the politics blog of the San Francisco Chronicle ("Star endorser at Latino 'values' event to help Fiorina -- the 2008 Queen of SF Gay Pride Parade?").

From that post:

That "Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles" fundraiser in Los Angeles to reach conservative Latinos, celebrate "Tus Valores" (Your Values) and help U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina had an interesting twist: among the star celebrity backers in the lineup was Mexican-born telenovela star Karyme Lozano -- who also happens to be the crowned Queen of the 2008 San Francisco LGBT Pride events and parade.

And, who brought Ms. Lozano to San Francisco to receive said crown from the San Francisco gays in 2008? Why, it was Granada Entertainment, the same organization who organized Laura León's gay bar tour this week!
 
The Chronicle goes on to quote a passage from a Wikipedia entry for Ms. Lozano which apparently has been deleted since it was quoted by the paper.

Karyme Lozano, after the death of her father, is dedicated to promoting values and defend their Catholic faith, his testimony has joined the many who leave everything to follow Christ and make Him known. He has served on several Catholic Congress in the U.S., Central and South America and has initiated pro-life action with Eduardo Verastegui by standing outside a clinic near downtown Los Angeles, handing out pamphlets, trying to stop women from obtaining health services such as contraception, pap smears, and abortion.

Ah, Eduardo Verastegui, that other Mexican-born singer / actor who became the Latino face for the successful homophobic Prop. 8 campaign in California back in 2008.

This is not really a dig at Granada Entertainment.  For years now, they have made a business of bringing popular Spanish-language pop music stars to their gay fans in the United States and there is certainly no way for them to know which of the stars that agree to perform at gay bars will turn their back on the gays in the future.  Among others they've brought to Latino gay clubs throughout the United States are also gay-friendly Fey, La India and Gloria Trevi.

But sometimes I feel our community confuses the fact that it's all about the business of getting their gay money rather than the performer's true support for the community and our rights - and it frustrates me to no end that performers such as Verastegui, Lozano and Paquita and Yuri can simply use the community to advance their careers and then turn their backs on us in hurtful ways.

Worse still is that they know they can get away with it.  Ms. Paquita "Let the baby die rather than be adopted by a gay couple" La Del Barrio? Why, she'll be performing at New York City's Madison Square Garden on October 16th as if nothing had happened and it wouldn't surprise me to see more than a few gay fans in the stands. And yes, before her mouth got her into trouble, Paquita also was crowned Queen of the gays during one of her US tours.

As for the group calling for the $1 million dollar Fiorina fundraising drive? The Los Angeles Times calls The Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles "hard to trace" but names some of its founders and I'm not sure some of them could call themselves Latino without making people laugh.

The great Jeremy Hooper at Gay As You digs in deeper:

This Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles coalition is an outreach of the American Principles Project, and this Fiorina effort is the work of APP's action arm, American Principles in Action. Robert George is the founder of APP/APIA. The same Robert George who -- wait for it, wait for it -- CO-FOUNDED NOM! So essentially we have NOM signing on as one of two sponsors (the Susan B. Anthony List being the other) of a pro-Fiorina effort that was setup by their own founding chairman and current prominent spokesperson!

So where's the money coming from? That we can't answer. But we do know that this Partnership for Conservative Principles is not a Latino coalition that just so happens to put some focus on gay issues. In fact, it seems to be a largely gay-interested coalition (marriage in particular) that just so happens to put particular focus on Latinos! 

Got that? The so-called "Latino" partnership is an outreach arm of the non-Latino APP and the main force behind it, as well as it's lead board member, is the non-Latino Robert George who also happens to have been the founder of the incredibly homophobic National Organization for Marriage.

Note to Karyme Lozano: You are being used as a tool. I hope, down the line, Laura León stops at expressing platitudes about the gays and doesn't join Lozano and Verastegui in stabbing our backs.

Related:

• Another crowned Queen joins the anti-LGBT dark side (Hispanic L.A.)
• NOM supports Fiorina campaign to Latinos (Box Turtle Bulletin)

Sickening

Last week, some anonymous person sent me a number of low-quality clips from a television show called "José Luis Sin Censura".

The show, which thankfully I've never seen in my life, is apparently broadcast in some of the major US television Latino markets, including New York City, Los Angeles, Miami and Houston.

Think of a smuttier "The Jerry Springer Show" with no concern shown for FCC fines, particularly in their demeaning portrayal of gays, lesbians, women and transgender folk.

I have compiled the six or seven clips I was sent and uploaded them as a single clip on YouTube.  I believe the clips come from two separate shows...



Looking for additional info online, I was happy to see that the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) was already on the case.  An excerpt from their June 18th statement:

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) asks you to join calls for the reality talk show José Luis Sin Censura to immediately stop using defamatory terms and apologize to viewers. The terms “maricón” and “puñal,” which in English translate to “fa**ot” were chanted by audience members on the June 8 segment of the program. The same pattern occurred on the June 10 segment of the show, when audience members chanted “puto,” a word that also means “fa**ot” in many Spanish-speaking countries.
GLAAD reached out to executives of the company that produces José Luis Sin Censura to express our concerns, but the company has not responded.  The show is produced and distributed by Burbank, CA-based LBI, Liberman Broadcasting Inc. José Luis Sin Censura airs daily on Estrella TV in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Houston and other large Latino markets. By one estimate, Estrella TV reaches about 70% of the nation’s Latino households and millions of Latinos nationwide.
The show’s format pits guests against one another in combative situations. This often leads to violence, which audience members are encouraged to cheer and sends a message that violence against LGBT people is okay.

They urge people to take action NOW and express their outrage.

I was also glad and not surprised to see that the amazing Jeremy Hooper of Good As You was on the case as well. He's got additional damning footage of the show on his blog.

IGLHRC gains consultative status in the UN, Venezuela only country in America to vote 'No'

Yesterday, I was thrilled to hear that the US-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) had gained consultative status by the United Nations (Official press release here).

This came at the end of a prolonged fight to block the accreditation by leaders and representatives from some of the most homophobic nations in the world as well as fundamentalist religious institutions.

"Today's decision is an affirmation that the voices of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have a place at the United Nations as part of a vital civil society community," said Cary Alan Johnson, IGLHRC Executive Director. "The clear message here is that these voices should not be silenced and that human rights cannot be denied on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity."

In the United States Republican Congressmen Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Trent Franks (R-AZ) had urged other countries to vote against accrediting IGLHRC.

Today, they'll be glad to know they were on the same side as Venezuela.

Yes, of the thirteen nations that voted against the measure, the only country in the American continent was Venezuela.Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations Jorge Valera (pictured) has yet to explain his vote as does the government of Hugo Chavez.

An aside: Yesterday the White House released a brief statement by President Barack Obama, welcoming the news:

I welcome this important step forward for human rights, as the International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission (ILGHRC) will take its rightful seat at the table of the United Nations. The UN was founded on the premise that only through mutual respect, diversity, and dialogue can the international community effectively pursue justice and equality. Today, with the more full inclusion of the International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission, the United Nations is closer to the ideals on which it was founded, and to values of inclusion and equality to which the United States is deeply committed.

Hm, it's not the International "Lesbian and Gay" Human Rights Commission. They switched those two words around, and also got the acronym wrong. It's not "ILGHRC" , it's "IGLHRC". Oooopsie! A good thing, though, for the president to recognize the great news.

UPDATE: Thanks to Gerónimo Desumala, who left a comment on this post, here is a link to a description of the vote at the United Nations as well as the debate that preceded and followed.

A Venezuelan delegate stated the 'no' vote was not based on the nature of the agency's work but, instead, on procedural issues...

Speaking in explanation of vote after the vote, Venezuela’s delegate said her country’s Constitution forbade discrimination on grounds of economic or social status.  Venezuela had voted against the granting of consultative status to the organization for reasons of procedure, not because it had substantive objections to that organization’s work.  The examination of applications for consultative status was the responsibility of the Non-Governmental Organization Committee.

She said the Council did not have enough information to make a clear, objective opinion on the issue and it should, thus, respect the Committee’s recommendations.  Any decision adopted regarding the consultative status would establish a negative precedent, opening the door for any State to selectively bring the Council’s attention to applications for consultative status based on national interest.

"We all have the same rights" says NBA player about marriage equality law in Argentina

Emmanuel Ginóbili, an Argentinean basketball player who plays in the United States for the NBA's San Antonio Spurs has backed this week's historic marriage equality law in Argentina during a press conference in his country of birth.

"I am completely in favor of the marriages," he said to a number of reporters covering his arrival in Argentina, "I think we all have the same rights, although when it comes to adoption, I don't feel able to give an opinion".

That comes from an article posted online last night and published in today's edition of El Sol ("Manu on gay marriage"), The paper calls him the best Argentinean basketball player ever.

Survey after survey leading to the vote showed that Argentineans, on the whole, were OK with the recognizing same-sex partnerships but did not feel comfortable about granting them adoption rights.

In Argentina, gays can actually adopt children, even before the marriage bill passed, but opponents of the marriage equality bill sought to derail it by offering an "alternative" civil unions bill which would have banned gay couples from adopting.  Ultimately that bill never reached the senate floor on the day of the debate due to parliamentary rules.

---

UPDATED SECTION: I've got my hands on a video of the press conference and Manú Ginóbili's full statement:

Reporter: You've been told, pardon me, about the polarization of the country and, in addition, yesterday there were two protests in the country which have divided society - and different personalities have expressed what they think about gay marriage, yes or no. Do we have your opinion?
Manú: I am in favor of gay marriage - eh - specially of the rights - eh - needed by people who are equal before the law - eh - and it doesn't affect the rest of society... it doesn't, if they are gays... yes? let them be and do whatever they want, I am in favor, and it seems to me...
Reporter: What about adoption?
Manú: Adoption is much more delicate, I don't feel I have the qualifications, I don't know which studies have been done, if there is any background info.  I know that, I believe - I don't know, as an outside observer, without knowledge of what scientific data there is out there - that it should be better for a baby to be born with two dads than in an orphanage.

-----

What's truly bizarre about this is another internationally renown athlete also spoke to reporters and said almost the exact same thing...



That actually is a clip of the popular Argentinean television soap opera "Botineras" in which actor Cristian Sancho plays a world renown soccer player nicknamed Flaco who falls in love with a teammate and comes out as being gay for fear of being outed.  I wrote about the groundbreaking storyline back in April ("Soccer players in love"). This particular episode aired earlier this week just before the senate gave the go-ahead to marriage equality.

As for Cristian Sancho, the actor, he has said that, as a straight man, it has been the role of a lifetime to be able to play Flaco.

The full article is only available on newsstands, but that's him posing for the current edition of the gossipy magazine Caras in which he also graces the cover. Yup, he is wearing a corset.

The cover reads "The leading man of 'Botineras' supports gay marriage and says he now has male and female fans".

Apparently, in the article, he goes into his portrayal of a masculine gay man in one of the most homophobic sports in the world and his attempt at also giving his character some feminine traits.  The pull quote from the article?

"You have to be very manly to accept masculine femininity".

For more of Mr. Sancho you can read a post I wrote also back in April about his naked photo shoot for a gay magazine called Romeo.

And, as an extra, I'll also post the groundbreaking scene that ran on the show on April 9th, 2010. It was the first time the two teammates slept together. I find it beautifully handled and erotic, even if a bit NSFW. It does make you wonder, though, how those hair curls stay in place...

Video: Brutal murderer Jacobo Piñero walks out of jail a free man

In the midst of all the celebration about the huge marriage equality win in Argentina, on Monday I also wrote a disturbing post ("Outrage in Spain: Man held in brutal murder of gay couple is set free after 4 years in prison").

Basically, I said Jacobo Piñero (right) walked out of jail a free man when a court in Vigo, Spain, invalidated a 20-year conviction for arson.

Last year, a jury in Vigo absolved all charges against him and almost set him free. The arson charge was tacked on at the last minute by a judge who could not believe the jury would set him free.

What did Piñero do other than set an apartment in fire? Well, let's revisit another post I wrote a year ago ("Spain: Outrage at aquittal of man who stabbed gay couple 57 times and set their bodies on fire").

Hm, the title certainly gives it away but it doesn't nearly describe the violence this man committed against that gay couple:

27 year old Isaac Ali Dani Peréz Triviño was born in Spain. 32 year old Julio Anderson Luciano was born in Brazil. They lived together in the Spanish province of Vigo and were planning to get married.

Both were stabbed to death by Jacobo Piñeiro Rial in their apartment in the early morning of January 13th, 2006. The bodies showed a total of 57 stab wounds, according to forensics.

After killing them, Piñeiro took a shower and cleaned himself up. He filled a suitcase with some of their belongings to make it look like a robbery and then spilled clothing all over the place. He poured alcohol over everything, including his victims' bodies, turned on the gas spigot on the stove, and set everything on fire. The local fire department said that little evidence would have survived if it wasn't for their prompt response to the 5-alarm fire [...] There are no independent witnesses, but police and forensic experts say that the murder rampage began around 4:00am. Apparently, Pérez Triviñio was stabbed first but did not die. Piñeiro then stabbed Anderson Luciano twice while in the couples' room, and 22 more times as he followed his victim out of the room, into a corridor and out to the living room - where he died.

Pérez Triviñio, in the meantime, had locked himself in the room and records show that he was able to call local authorities. The call was cut short when Piñeiro was able to break back into the room and finish him off by stabbing him 35 more times.

In the living room, he tied Anderson Luciano's hands and put a blanket over his body; in the bedroom, he placed a blanket over Pérez Triviñio's head, tied a cable around it, and tethered it to a bed post. He then emptied closets and threw clothes all over the apartment, poured alcohol and set everything on fire.

The fire department arrived soon after Piñero left the apartment and different leads led to his capture.  He was held in police custody for three years until the trial took place last year.  The reason he almost walked out of the courtroom despite confessing to the murders was that he claimed he went temporarily crazy when the couple made sexual advances towards him. The jury bought the gay panic argument and nearly set him free.

Following worldwide outrage about the verdict (and the fact that a man might be convicted for setting an apartment on fire but not for stabbing two men 57 times) a higher court said it would consider an appeal of the verdict and eventually overturned it.  They also set a new trial date for September of this year.

At issue, though, is that penal laws in Spain limit the time someone can be held in custody without being sentenced to four years and, since a court had invalidated his conviction, and Piñero had been held in custody since he was arrested in 2006, the four years were up.

On Monday, Piñero walked out of jail a free man. At least until the new trial.  Here is the video. Truly disturbing.

FUCK YES! Marriage equality in Argentina

"Igualdad!, Igualdad!, Igualdad!"

Initial reports:

Rex Wockner: Argentina legalizes gay marriage
Joe.My.God.: Argentina's Senate APPROVES Marriage Equality 33-27!!!
Rod2.0: Argentina Approves Gay Marriage After Emotional, All-Night Debate

Facts you didn't know about tonight's historic marriage equality vote in Argentina

Since #MatrimonioGay is a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, here are some of the facts about tonight's historic marriage equality vote in the Argentinean senate you might know by now:

• Right this moment the Argentinean senate is debating a marriage equality bill. The vote will probably happen early morning today.
• The lower House of Deputies already passed their version of the bill which means that, if the Senate passes the marriage equality bill tonight, it will go to President Cristina Férnandez de Kirchner for a signature.
• The president had already said that she would not veto the bill if it reached her desk but, for the most part, she had been absolutely mum on whether she supported the bill.
• Last week things changed when Senator Liliana Negre de Alonso, a member of the ultra-conservative Opus Dei, pulled out a homophobic card out her sleeve and introduced a brand new "civil union" bill which she hoped would draw away votes from the marriage bill once it reached the senate and kill it. Negre de Alonso, who had previously stated she opposed marriage equality because she wanted to "protect the children", was also the president of the senate committee studying which version of the bill would reach the senate vote.
• Meanwhile, while the Catholic church was dormant in the early stages of the legislative process, they certainly became active in the last few weeks. Increasing their fundamentalist homophobic ire, they vegan a campaign to motivate followers to oppose the bill, wouldn't you know it, "for the sake of the children". For the purported sake of the children they called the marriage equality bill  the work of the Devil and called for a Holy War to defeat the bill.
• That's whats set President Kirchner off. Having left on a diplomatic trip to China last week and still away from the country tonight, she held a press conference and said the following...

W00t! That might be the strongest statement ever by a Latin American president on behalf of marriage equality and folk are right to say that not even Obama has been this forthcoming when it comes to the issue BUT you also have to realize that Kirchner was mum all along, even as the bill survived the House of Deputies, and only spoke up a couple of days before the vote. Some say it was a strategy to not associate the bill too strongly with the party in charge.

Those were the facts you might now. Here are the facts you might not know...

• Opponents of the marriage equality bill who sought to draw away votes last week by introducing a bogus "civil union" bill apparently didn't realize that their bill would not be debated on the floor tonight anyway due to parliamentary procedure which says that new bills cannot be debated before 14 days after being introduced (or at least I believe that is the limit I heard). In addition the bogus "civil union" bill was thrown out of debate yesterday by a procedural vote, which means that today in the senate the ONLY bill that would be debated was the marriage equality bill.
• There was a question earlier yesterday as to whether quorum would be reached for a vote. Proponents of the marriage equality bill also promised they would not bring the bill up for debate unless they had secured enough votes for passage of the bill. Apparently they did secure the votes because this afternoon quorum was reached and the Senate has gone into marriage equality debate mode since then.
• The Parlamentario website, which has been tallying votes as the bill has moved forward, has the bill winning to night by one vote at this moment. The bill will win by simple majority or even if there is a tie. The president of the Senate is granted an extra vote in the case of a tie and he has said that, if a tie happens, he will vote in favor of marriage equality.
• HUGE NEWS: For those of you who said that Ricky Martin's coming out was too little too late and didn't have any impact... coming out frees you to say what you believe. He actually tweeted the following (and made #matrimoniogay a trending topic on Twitter last night):
  
  
  
  

  Let's go #Argentina ! The same rights with the same name for everyone #GAYMARIAGE #HumanRights #MatrimonioGay #DerechosHumanos 

• As for marriage equality activists in Argentina, the LGBT Federation of Argentina (FALGBT), led by amazing LGBT rights activist Maria Rachid, has launched two of the most amazing and effective marriage equality ads I have ever seen.

First, a sober look at how the Catholic church opposed a divorce law in Argentina using the same arguments they use today to oppose marriage equality...



Then there is this utterly amazing ad shooting for the heart...


Just amazing, don't you think? In the meantime, it gets crazier...

• One of the leading newspapers in Argentina, La Nación, recently ran an editorial opposing the marriage equality bill ("Adoption and homosexual unions", July 15, 2010). To back up their anti-gay arguments, they quote "North Americam research in the hands of experts in charge of behavioral studies at the University of South Carolina". They don't name names but, of course, the only expert from USC publishing such studies is none other than Mr. "Lift-My-Travel-Bags-Rent-Boy" George Rekers.
• In the meantime, House Deputy Cynthia Hotton, a leading anti-gay legislator, posted a YouTube diatribe against marriage equality for the sake of "the children" and used Moby's "Porcelain" as a backround song.
• Moby's reaction? 

Oh, some people have drawn my attention to the fact that a homophobic ad campaign is using 'porcelain' needless to say we didn't approve this,

Tonight, there is still no word as whether marriage equality will become law in Argentina or not.

One extra video tonight showing the "love" that religious fundamentalists in Argentina show us gays. From a previous anti-marriage equality rally, "Cumbio goes to Hell"...



Later this morning: The final vote count in the Argentinean senate...

Related: 

• Kisses for Cumbio (Dangerous Minds)

Outrage in Spain: Man held in brutal murder of gay couple is set free after 4 years in prison

Photo: Julio Anderson Luciano and Isaac Ali Dani Pérez Triviño (l-r) who were brutaly murdered in Vigo, Spain on January of 2006.

Stunning news: On January 13th, 2006, Jacobo Piñero stabbed Julio Anderson Luciano and Isaac Ali Dani Pérez Triviño  to death 57 times.  The victims were a gay couple. He then threw clothing all around the apartment, poured gasoline over everything and set everything on fire. Firemen arrived in time to quickly put out the fire and, within hours, leads led to Piñero's arrest.

When the case finally came to trial last year, Piñero stood up in court and confessed to the murders but a jury accepted a gay panic defense and found him innocent of every single charge against him, including murder and arson. It was the presiding judge who then stepped in to 'correct an error' and found him guilty of setting the fire ("Outrage at aquittal of man who stabbed gay couple 57 times and set their bodies on fire", March 2, 2009).

On April 3rd, 2009, the judged sentenced Piñero to twenty years in prison, the maximum term allowed by the law.

The acquittal on murder charges considering the extreme violence and gruesome details of the attack, drew orldwide outrage with several rallies throughout Spain demanding justice. A few LGBT advocates in New York also gathered outside the Spanish embassy in New York City.

Today Piñero walked out of jail a free man ("Man accused in double homophobic crime, goes free", Público, July 13, 2010).

At issue was an ruling earlier this year by a higher court which actually annulled last year's verdict and ordered a new trial.

Spain's penal laws limit the maximum time that a person can be held in custody without charges to four years in prison. The court ruled that, since Piñero had been held in custody from the day he was arrested in 1996, he could not continue to be held in prison unless he was found guilty of a crime on a later date.

The court ordered Piñero to hand in his passport, recognizing that there was a risk he might try to leave the country, and required that he meet with authorities every single day until the next trial. But they also turned down a request by friends and family of the murdered couple to require that Piñero use an electronic ankle bracelet to pinpoint his whereabouts at all times.

A new trial in the brutal murder has been scheduled for September 16, 2010.

The first and final gay pride march

Next year you'll probably find me marching at the Heritage of Pride march down 5th Avenue in Manhattan. Perhaps with the Queer New York Bloggers contingent. I keep getting invited and turning them down because I'm never around for pride weekend in New York. At least during the last couple of years.  Then again, I might have marched in my last gay pride march ever.

Truth be told, I've felt a bit prided out the last few years.  I see a rainbow flag and I cringe.  The thought of hours and hours of commercially sponsored floats carrying a seemingly inexhaustible number of go-go boys and drag queens dancing to the same Lady Gaga song doesn't seem as fresh to me as when go-go boys and drag queens were dancing to Madonna way back.  And watching some of the Latino groups spend all that money on the glorious feathered costumes and elaborate floats breaks my heart when I know how hard they work for the money, if only to blow it on a couple of hours in the sun.

Don't get me wrong! Some of my best friends are go-go boys and drag queens! They are also from Latin America! It's just that when the New York City Department of Health does a float promoting crystal-meth addiction awareness and sees the need to put 20 go-go boys dancing around the float to call attention to the message, well, there is something really wrong with the world.

In other words, I have turned into an old gay geezer.

So when I tell you that I marched at a gay pride march a week ago Sunday and that it was an incredibly moving experience don't just take it with a grain of salt. It was a revelation...



I mean, it wasn't just ANY gay pride. It was the 13th annual gay pride in the city where I was born: Medellín, Colombia... and the first time I ever participated in it.

I mean, this is the city I left in the late 1990's when I didn't think it was possible to live an openly gay life. It wasn't that there weren't any gay people in Medellín at the time. I remember summer romances with two Colombian soldiers, one of whom offered me one of his hollow-point rifle bullets as a keepsake when he found out I was leaving (I refused it, thinking it would explode halfway through the trip back to the United States).

I mean, I was 20 at the time.

I mean, that's Calle 13's "Fiesta de Locos" blasting out of the speakers ---- and every single person singing it!

I mean...



OMG! Never in a million years would I have expected all this 'Glee'ness to happen in Medellín. I was enthralled.

The march was actually one of two gay pride marches in the city that day. This particular one was pulled together by Edisón Arboleda of the LGBT-rights organization Corporación El Otro.  It got off to a slow start and it took ages to make our way downtown, amidst huge sudden downpours and a loss of marchers.

But, as marchers made it over the Colombia Street bridge and into the mostly empty industrial area of downtown Medellín, the march truly turned into one huge party.



I know it might seem like any pride march anywhere in the world to you  but it sent chills down my spine.  It still does as I watch these clips.

A few things I noticed: Only a couple of commercial floats, police turning away a number of drunk soccer hooligans shouting homophobic slurs as a few drag queens watched them being taken away, a march where participants and spectators were allowed free movement instead of penning people in as they do in New York, young queer folk everywhere, a cute photographer from El Tiempo and, yes, Lady Gaga.

I also took a few photos (and so did my brother).  And that was my gay pride this year. How was yours?

Related: 

• La Dany - The Movie
• Medellin gay pride parade (flickr)

Carlos Monsivais: What an outing!

Journalist Daniel Hernandez, who blogs at Intersections and writes for Los Angeles Times, writes about the passing of one of Mexico's literary lions, Carlos Monsivais, who died on Saturday at the age of 72.  From his post:

He was known as Mexico's finest chronicler, its "last public intellectual," its "conscience," and as the only literary figure around who was said to be recognized by regular folks on the street. With the death on Saturday of Carlos Monsivais, Mexico lost a voice that for nearly 50 years was considered unrivaled in his ability to cut to the core of the issues and personalities of his day.

Mourners, from high-profile politicians to everyday workers, swarmed the writer's casket at two public wakes over the weekend. People waved, cheered and chanted for the man millions knew simply as "Monsi."

Monsivais was a journalist, a critic, a cinephile, a collector of historical and pop ephemera (which led eventually to the founding of a museum) and a tireless activist for minority rights and the political left. In hundreds of articles and columns, more than two dozen books, countless appearances on television and radio, at conferences and demonstrations, Monsivais represented for many Mexicans an enormously erudite man of letters who never lost touch with ordinary people, or with the tragicomic nature of life here.

I have to say I didn't know much about Monsivais, other than he was an ardent defender of LGBT rights in Mexico and that some of his published pieces on the subject were seen as influential on moving a number of cultural and political leaders to support marriage equality rights in Mexico City.  I also assumed he was gay...

Well, he was... but apparently not too willing to talk about it. Again, from Daniel's piece for Los Angeles Times:

Monsivais was also active in various gay rights issues and wrote on related topics such as homophobia. His own sexuality, however, was not something he commented on.

"Many of the achievements we have today are thanks to him, the work he did," said Lina Perez Cerqueda, director of a gay rights organization, referring to the legalization of gay marriage in Mexico City and similar measures. "I think Carlos was beyond [labels]. It was nothing he hid, and it was not something he announced. He was Carlos."

That was the clear sentiment online Saturday night on Twitter as hundreds came to pay their respects at a last-minute wake, including Marcelo Ebrad, the Mayor of Mexico City.  The ceremony was broadcast live by some Mexican networks and on online feeds.

From this vantagepoint, it was a mix of the emotional and the gaudy, of pure sentiment and outright cheesiness. Or perhaps I am not used to Mexican wakes?  That five minute stretch of people applauding as some looked around confused as whether they should stop? Awkward!  The gay guy playing a flute as others looked uncomfortable around him? Spare me the flute melodies when I die.

But it was something else that gay guy did that actually made me gasp.  Right during the live webcast of the ceremony, two guys dressed in black were shown talking to a woman. They unfurled a rainbow gay pride flag and, after getting a go-ahead from the woman, one of them walked over to the coffin and laid the flag on top of it.  For a few minutes the rainbow flag laid there, on its own, as television commentators tried to make sense of it. Ah! His support for LGBT rights! They said.  Youl could still feel a palpable uneasiness about that multi-colored rainbow flag draping that coffin right at the center of a multitude of people dressed in black.

I Tweeted "What was that? An attempt to reclaim Monsivais for the LGBT community?" And it was!

Today, Mexican LGBT news site Anodis caught up to gay flautist Horacio Franco (pictured in the black shirt, crossed arms, to the left), who is described as a friend of Monsivais. He was also the man who placed the flag on the coffin.

Asked about about Monsivais' homosexuality, Franco said "it was never made public, but everyone knew about it."

Damn! Outed right before burial! I'm not sure how I feel about it.  On the one hand, there is a long history of left wing leaders and figures who were gay but never acknowledged it while alive. I mean, when it mattered. That is, when Fidel Castro was sending gays to forced labor camps.  On the other, Monsivais was a forceful advocate for LGBT rights even as he seemed less than willing to discuss his own sexuality.

As I looked at the live broadcast of the wake, I wasn't the only one who noticed all the photos of Monsivais and his loved cats. He was said to love his cats so much that he kept them despite doctors telling him that their presence in the house would worsen the lung ailment that eventually killed him. But, as I looked at all those pictures, I also wondered if there hadn't been any men in his life whose photos he would have liked to grace the halls of his wake. Yes, that was his chose in life and perhaps that choice was violated at the wake. But I couldn't help to feel sadness that such a man lived and died in the closet.

UPDATE: I always admit that I am not the best writer out there.   Sometimes I reread a post and cringe a bit at what I wrote and something about this post makes me do that.  It comes out as too light a take on the issue of outing someone who never said he was gay publicly and yet did great things for the LGBT community.  BUT I do know that I have good instincts for sniffing out interesting stories nobody else is writing about here in the United States.  And sometimes someone takes a look at what I wrote and spins off on my thoughts. That was the case with Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano's take on my post after Ricky Martin came out ("Why Ricky Martin Matters") and it is the case now with Anahi Parra at Macha Mexico.  She has written the post I was hoping to write on the outing of Monsivais so please jump over to...

• Lo que se ve no se pregunta (Macha Mexico, June 20th, 2010) - btw, it's an English language post for those of you who do not understand Spanish.

Argentina at the FIFA World Cup: Homosex on their minds

What's up with the Argentina soccer world cup team and their latest obsession with homosex?

The latest: Back in May, before the tournament began, team coach and famed former player Diego Maradona (right) made an unusual promise: If Argentina returns from South Africa as the world champions, he will run naked around the Obelisk located in the heart of Buenos Aires.

Not that running naked is gay. But then came other comments by Carlos Bilardo, another former player and the team's current General Manager.

Appearing on a television news magazine show aired on June 4th, Dr. Bilardo, who is also a former physical therapist, was a bit bawdy and funny as heck.  Invited to talk on the topic of sex and soccer, Dr. Bilardo addressed whether players should have sex the day before a game, whether they masturbated in the locker rooms and whether there was an appropriate sexual position between an older man and a younger woman.

The clincher came just as Dr. Bilardo was getting ready to end the interview and walk out of the studio.

"Any promises Carlos, or not?" host Matias Marín asked him, "Diego [Maradona] said if he emerges the champion, [he'l run] naked to the Obelisk".

Here is Dr. Bilardo's response:



That, of course, was international news. From Peru's 100 Goles, "If Argentina is the champion, I'll let them do my ass". 

It's not the first time that Dr. Bilardo makes a similar World Cup promise. Four years ago, he offered to masturbate the player who scored the championship goal at the previous World Cup tournament (Italy won so Dr. Bilardo ultimately did not have to make good on his offer).

I guess he was upping the ante this year and at least one of the players indicated he would be more than game. Martin Palermo, who at 36 is playing in his first World Cup tournament, joked that if he scores the championship goal he'll "make Bilardo's dream come true" only if Bilardo accepts putting on a wig.

Who knows where all this is going with Argentina sitting pretty on top of the World Cup Group B standings with two wins and no losses. One thing seems true, the spirit of homosex doesn't seem to want to leave the team alone.  It's latest manifestation came during the press conference on Thursday after Argentina's 4-1 defeat of South Korea in the guise of a BBC reporter and some apparently faulty translation.



Look at those eyes widen in horror at the thought of homosex! Ah, Diego. Things haven't changed much since he played into rumors that Brazilian soccer idol Pelé began his sexual life with other boys. That also made worldwide news at the time.

But what else is new?  Soccer doesn't seem to indicate it will ever grow up when it comes to issues related to homosexuality.

RELATED:

• Roger Cohen: The Loose Vuvuzuela (NYT, June 21, 2010)
• Diego Maradona is not gay (The New Republic, July 2, 2010)

The biggest homophobes in history

It's been a month since the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) was observed around the world but I just became aware a certain exhibition that was held in Milan, Italy on May 17th.

TÊTU magazine reports that the exhibit featured large posters of some of the most homophobic personalities in history and included Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Italy's Benito Mussolini, Cuba's Fidel Castro, China's Mao Zedong, Germany's Adolph Hitler and the USSR's Joseph Stalin.

Commissioned by an Italian LGBT rights organization called Milano Contro l'Omofobia, each image is made up by an arrangement of the letters in the Italian word for homophobia, 'omofobia'.

Organizers of the exhibit said they wanted to make the general public aware of the scourge of homophobia in past and current history and throughout the world.  For each of the chosen 'personalities', campaign designers added an explanation why the person was chosen.

Under the image for Cuba's Fidel Castro, the legend reads:

"A deviation of this nature clashes with the concept we have of what a militant Communist should be." - The Military Units to Aid Production or UMAP forced labor camps were created in Cuba in 1965 by Ernesto "Ché" Guevara and remained active until 1968. During the years 1961 of 1962, homosexuals were imprisoned at the Diego Perez Cape, accused of being effeminate and of loitering. During large-scale political actions, thousands of young people were arrested in their own homes and forcefully taken by trains, trucks and buses to deportation camps in the province of Camagüey. From there, they were transferred to agricultural areas for forced work cutting hollow bamboo [sugar] canes. Housed in in an unhealthy environment, they were placed in camps surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by the Revolutionary Armed Forces. Gays were treated inhumanly. An approximate 4,000 homosexuals were persecuted.

The exhibit has drawn additional attention as of late because the design team for the posters, Studio FM, also just won the 2010 Gold Medal for Poster Series awarded by the European Design Awards.  Click through the full set of posters at this link [click on the image to see a larger size and, once there, on the 'Get originally uploaded photo' on the bottom left to get the full size].

Premiere: Angelo Garcia rushes out demo tracks on YouTube

It certainly seems to have been a tumultuous week for ex-Menudo boyband member and now out gay man Angelo Garcia.

On Sunday, popular blogger Matthew Rettenmund posted an item from the June 8th issue of Spanish language gossip magazine TV Novelas on his Boy Culture blog in which Garcia spoke openly about being a gay man.   He also posted an update featuring photos Garcia sent to him in which he appeared posing with his boyfriend.

The post was quickly picked up by several blogs, including Blabbeando, and then got tremendous play in Brazilian mainstream media (don't ask).  It was only later in the week that Spanish language media such as Univision, People en Español and MTVtr3s picked it up and it's only now spreading throughout Latin America.

If Ricky Martin's coming out received what amounted to indifferent shrugs in the United States, the reaction to Garcia have mostly been associated to his pumped up physique and not his music. After all, he never really had the musical cross-over that Ricky Martin enjoyed in the United States during his "Living La Vida Loca" days.

But most reactions, including mine, have also focused on the fact that he is the second Menudo member to come out.

Actually, according to Garcia, that's erroneous: He says he came out two months before Ricky Martin did.

"Let me clear something up with all my friends and Fans," he wrote yesterday in a Facebook Fan Page post, "Ricky Martin might have been the most Famous Menudo to ever come out but I was the FIRST! I am getting a lot of attention about this now because of Ricky's Revelation so having 2 Menudo boys be GAY I guess is NEWS WORTHY but I spoke publicaly (sic) about my Sexuality 2 months before he came out. It is funny how the press TWISTS the TRUTH".

If that sounds snooty, petty or a stab at attention-grabbing, he explains in another post why he felt he needed to make the statement. "I did not expect all this media attention and I am not looking for attention or trying to ride coat tails or steal other's THUNDER! I am TIRED of The RUDE IGNORANT comments and RUDE Emails people are sending. I Love myself just the way I am. Like Christina aguilera says 'AND IF ...YOU DONT LIKE IT F*** YOU!'"

And he is right. Some replies on message boards and online articles have been vicious and more than a few have accused him of trying to ride the Ricky Martin's coattail to fame.

As I wrote in my previous post, I did find a previous interview in which Garcia openly discussed his sexual orientation, and in which he also discussed his experiences as a male stripper at Manhattan's now gone Gaiety Theater in Times Square.  But it wasn't clear to me if the interview had been conducted in April when he did an erotic photo shoot for Paragon Men - 2 months before Ricky Martin came out - or after Ricky had come out. In any case, the interview went unnoticed and it's only now that media is focusing on Garcia.

In those interviews, Garcia also mentioned he was working in new solo material. He'd previously released a solo album titled "Cool" but that was in 2006. I checked out some of the tracks out there and found some promise but was not impressed overall.  I also thought he was bluffing a bit when he said he was working on new material. Apparently, I was also wrong.

Last night on YouTube, Garcia released two demo tracks he is working on for his upcoming English-language release "Scandalous". I imagine he wants to take advantage of the attention he has been getting this week and who could blame him? It's also probably a way to try to turn attention away from his Menudo past as well as put a spotlight on his music.  But is it good?

In interviews, Garcia has described himself as a gay male version "Lady Gaga" but in the cover art and in the song stylings he actually reminds me more of Adam Lambert.  Both songs obviously needs some additional production work but I think they show great potential and build up on the promise he showed in his past solo work. 

First up, the better of the two demos, "The Morning After"...



And then, "Fallin 4 U".  Funny, one of the lines in the song says "I wanna explain it to the world that you are my favorite girl"... I guess if gay actors can play straight, gay singers can play straight too? Or will the lyrics be changed once the album is released?



What do you think?

Related:

• Angelo's Facebook Fan page here
• Angelo's MySpace page here
• Angelo's Twitter feed  here 

Previously:

• Puerto Rican singer Lisa M. comes out (April 23, 2010)
• Ricky Martin: "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man" (March 29, 2010)
• Dominican singer Rita Indiana comes out (March 23, 2010) 

Some "Bad Romance", Mexico style

While you kiddies breathlessly await tomorrow's premiere of Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" video, here is something to tide you over (blame Twitter for me knowing that tomorrow is the "Alejandro" premiere).

The summer pride season got started this weekend with Brazil leading the way. Yeah, 3.5 million people, drag queens galore, rainbow flags everywhere. Ho-hum. Same as last year.

Wait. 3.5 million people? OMG. That's a lot of folks!

But Monterrey, Mexico, just kicked all of them Brazilian asses and did their own thingie over the weekend, plus or minus 3 million people.

Some background: LGBT activists and advocates in Mexico had spent years asking the federal government to recognize May 17th as the official day against homophobia and transphobia but when the government finally acceded to their demands this year, gone was any mention of 'homophobia' or 'transphobia'. Instead, president Felipe Calderón's government announced official recognition of May 17th as the "National Day of Tolerance and Respect towards Preferences".

Activists were, understandably, enraged. My friend, Gabriel Gutiérrez García, resigned as the designated ambassador against discrimination at the National Council to Prevent Discrimination. Others assailed the inability of the Mexican government to mention the words 'homophobia' and 'transphobia'. 

Save us, Lady Gaga!:  So where do the Mexican gaygays go? Of course! They go Gaga! As Milenio reports, a few show troopers showed up yesterday in front of the Plaza of Heroes in Monterrey, Mexico, and surprised passers-by with a choreographed performance of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" as criticism of the government's posture (they performed the whole routine in front of the Monterrey Government Palace, which is located in the Plaza).



El Universal, which counted 300 participants at the event, reported they were also trying to draw attention to more than 60 hate crimes committed against the LGBT community in Monterrey in recent years.

And this wasn't even Monterray's gay pride! That will happen this weekend but I doubt it will get nearly the attention the Lady Gaga stunt will get.

Meantime, in Brazil, President Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva didn't go the mamby pamby way! Today he announced that Brazil, unlike Mexico, would specifically observe an annual Day Against Homophobia.

UPDATE: Here is the 'official' video  of the action as posted by those who organized it...

OMG: Was everyone in Menudo gay?

Word comes today via Boy Culture that one of the original Menudo boyband members was gay.

No, not Ricky Martin. That's old news. It's Angelo Garcia, a boybandmate of Ricky's, who has since buffed up a little bit and, most recently, posed naked for erotic gay site Paragon Men (subscription required for what I assume are nude shots and video).

The semi-scoop comes from the June 8th print edition of TV Notas, a Spanish language tabloid sold in Latin America and the United States.

According to Boy Culture:

In the piece, he says he's never been closeted: "I'm very honest about who I am, but I don't like labels...people need to understand that someone's sexuality doesn't make the person. I'm more than that, a son, brother a musician..." But I believe he is confirming his identity publicly for the first time on the heels of appearing nude in a gay magazine.

He says he wasn't surprised when Ricky Martin came out, though he never saw Martin with a man or woman and assumed he was asexual (and no, they never fucked—he was 10 when Martin was 18, y'all). Martin had his own private room apart from the others.

Garcia theorizes their manager might have thought Martin was gay and kept him from his impressionable bandmates, or Martin may have had a private room as a perk since he was the eldest Menudo.

Paragon Men, which offers free access to some of the non-nudie shots on this page, also posted an English-language interview with Garcia back in April in which he actually said he was gay but, few, I guess, noticed at the time.  From that interview (italics mine):

Q: Since your on-camera interview with Jesse (filmed last month), Ricky Martin has officially "come-out", so let's move beyond your diplomatic comments on his life in the closet since Menudo. What do you think about his decision to come out? Is there anything you'd like to add to what you said earlier?

For all of us, discovering our sexuality is a process. None of us hits puberty knowing exactly where we fall on the spectrum of sexuality. We fantasize, we explore erotica and porn, we masturbate, we fuck, and we gradually get to know who we are sexually. I've never been in the closet and I've never lied about my sexuality. I believe in being honest with myself and others. I'm a very sexual person and I love sex with men. I've never told anyone anything different.

I can't speak for Ricky, and I don't know what his life was like after we parted ways. I'm glad that he's come out. It's better for him to stop hiding, and it's better for all of us. If every gay singer, actor, governor, lawyer, doctor, judge, teacher, athlete, senator, whatever would just come out and admit that he or she is gay, then the straight world would realize that being gay doesn't mean we are flawed. We were born with this other way of expressing love. It is neither better nor worse that being straight. It is just who we are.

Of course, I knew that Ricky was gay, but I would never "out" anyone. I know he seems to have a wonderful family now and to be comfortable in his own skin. What more could anyone want? He's a talented performer, and his being homosexual doesn't diminish that in any way. I am hopeful that the openly gay Ricky Martin will be as successful as the closeted Ricky Martin, and I wish him well.

As for his career,  Angelo Garcia has released a solo album titled "Cool".  I'm not sure if I dig "Dámelo", which I found on YouTube. There is also a lipsynched performance of "Cariño Presumido" on Puerto Rican TV.

But head over to his personal website, and listen to the couple of tracks you can stream on the site and they are much better including what seems to be the movie's title track, "Cool", an ode against fundamentalist religion.

He tells TV Notas and Paragon Men he is working on new material for an upcoming release.

Related:

• Angelo's Facebook Fan page here
• Angelo's MySpace page here
• Angelo's Twitter feed here  

Previously:

• Puerto Rican singer Lisa M. comes out (April 23, 2010)
• Ricky Martin: "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man" (March 29, 2010)
• Dominican singer Rita Indiana comes out (March 23, 2010) 

Rita Indiana in New York

[UPDATE TO THIS POST: Apparently Rita has cancelled all NYC appearances this summer. On Dominica television, she said she will come to the United States but it will be this Fall].
---
Speaking about the Dominican Republic:  I don't know about you, but I just can't stop saying enough great things about Rita Indiana y Los Misterios to my friends.  That's her above performing "Jardinera (Semilla)" last year at Cinema Cafe in Santo Domingo.

Last night she performed at CHA in downtown Santo Domingo (see two clips from her performance last night below). Now, this being the Dominican Republic, most local music acts would stay clear of the CHA, which happens to be a gay bar.  But this is Rita Indiana, who has been described as "the next best thing in Latin music", and who recently spoke to Dominican media about her current relationship with another woman.

That link will take you to one of my previous posts, which is misleadingly titled "Rita Indiana comes out".   The thing is, the more I've found out about Rita Indiana, the more I've realized she has never really been in the closet, whether in previous bands Miti Miti and Casifull or in her career as a poet and novelist. A Dominican television show reporter simply asked a question about her romantic life and she simply gave an answer.

But consider that the band, as many accolades as it is currently receiving, has yet to put an album out and you realize how amazing it is that someone who leads a band which shows such incredible potential to blow up big in the Latino music market and beyond would be so upfront about her sexual identity.  It really turns what has been the mantra in Latino music marketing totally upside down - with promoters, producers and managers telling gay performers to keep it on the down low - and it's totally refreshing.

Her upfrontness is also paying dividends in the island. From what I know, her songs are on constant radio replay in the Dominican Republic.  I get a sense that people don't really know what to make of Rita Indiana but they certainly love the music and, at least for now, she is being able to play her looks, her sexuality, her music and her openness to full advantage in a country not necessarily known for being that open.

Rita Indiana does Brooklyn 2010: Rita Indiana is no stranger to New York City. In fact, she made New York her home a few years back before moving to Puerto Rico and then went back to the Dominican Republic where she was born.  She has performed in the city with her former bands but I'm not sure if she has ever performed as Rita Indiana y Los Misterios.

New York City is well-known for it's free summer concerts at area parks.  Best known, perhaps, is Central Park's SummerStage series. But this year, it's the Celebrate Brooklyn! summer series that has got the best scoop!  On Friday, July 23, Rita Indiana will be sharing the bill with Colombia's Bomba Estéreo and Puerto Rico's La Secta Allstar for what promises to be an amazing show.

Previously, I have shared Rita Indiana y Los Misterios' amazing video for "La Hora de Volvé" as well as clips for "El Blu de Ping Pong", "El Maldito Faisbú", and my favorite, "Jardinera".  Watch them and memorize the lyrics.

And, from last night's performance at CHA, live versions of "El Blu de Ping Pong"...


...and "Bajito a Selva"...

Related:

• Rita Indiana y Los Misterios (Club Fonograma, Aug. 30, 2009)

Want more Rita? Check out these links:

• Rita Indiana's official promoter website here (official free music downloads here)
  
• Rita Indiana on MySpace here
• Rita Indiana's rarely used Twitter account here
• Rita Indiana y Los Misterios on MySpace here
• Rita Indiana y Los Misterios fan page on Facebook here

Dominican Republic: Church mural is too gay, must be torn down, says priest

[Photo credit: Detail from full mural photo taken by journalist José Rafael Sosa]

A mural painted twelve years ago inside a church located in the Dominican Republic town of Jarabacoa has drawn national attention this week after a newspaper reported that the resident priest at Our Lady of Carmen Church had requested official permission to tear it down... and revealed the reason for the request.

At issue, according to the papers submitted by Reverend Johnny Durán, is that the mural is just too gay. Rev. Durán claims that the mural is a "monstrosity" and that parents are keeping children away from church service because the images are too disturbing.

That's not the reception that mural creator Roberto Flores got when he approached the church in 1998 with a proposal to donate his artistic talents to the church.  At the time, the renown Dominican artist was welcomed with open arms.  Two years later he was recognized for his work at a public ceremony led by the local archbishop. And, with such accolades, the Jarabacoa town council decided to officially designate the artwork as a symbol of cultural heritage in order to protect it.

In other words, Rev. Durán could have gone ahead and destroyed the mural if he wanted if it wasn't for the fact that it had been placed on an official cultural patrimony list a few years back. Hence, his petition for the council to strip the artwork from its special protection status and to allow him to destroy it.

In a follow up article published today, there are disturbing indications that the current town council might be receptive to his homophobic request.  According to the article, town council member Marciela Genao recognized the artwork had a "great artistic value" but said that it was housed in an inappropriate place which "distracted and perturbed parishoners" and that the images of angels in the mural were placed in "very strange postures".

For his part, the artist is also speaking up. Mr. Flores expressed concern that the town council was considering lifting the protected cultural heritage status from a mural that had taken him five months to complete.

"I am an artist who is a believer, a Catholic, and what I did was create a mural art form which invites you to lift your soul to the sublime", he said.

The mural, he said, did not reflect sexual deviance nor the work of the Devil, as Rev. Durán and his followers have claimed, but was born out of his Christian faith and reflected no such thing.  He is pleading for his work to be saved from being destroyed.

El Nacional, the daily Dominican newspaper reporting on the story, says that they have made repeated attempts to contact Rev. Durán for his comments but he has yet to respond.

As for the mural, I cropped the section that might have been found to be gayish and there's actually not much gay-gay to it.  Jeez! If Rev. Durán sees obscenity in this, I wonder what else he deems devilish and censure-worthy!

Thankfully a group of local artists and poets have organized to fight back against zealous religious bigotry and censorship.

Poet Taty Hernández Durán is leading a community coalition to amass signatures in opposition to stripping the mural the protective cultural heritage status.  She has created a website to call attention to the impending town council vote.

José Rafael Sosa, who has been reporting on the issue for El Nacional and allowed me to use his image, is also following up on every development on his personal blog.

A vote might come tomorrow Friday or Monday. I'll keep you updated.

On Father's Day, People in Español magazine honors Ricky Martin

Officially on sale this Friday but in New York City newsstands right now, this is the cover of the Father's Day issue of People en Español.

It's not the first time that Ricky Martin has posed with his twins for the magazine - the first time was December of 2008 - but it's the first time he has done so as an openly gay man. I believe it is also the first official on-the record story since his coming out.

How great is it that the editors of one of the most widely read Spanish-language magazines in the United States would deem it fit to honor Ricky Martin and his parenting as an openly gay man and, in doing so, highlight gay parenting in general?  Appropriately, I also happened to come upon this story today on what a number of bloggers are celebrating as the 5th Annual Blogging for LGBT Families Day,

The cover story did not happen in a vacuum, though. Armando Correa, the current editor of People en Español, is also an openly gay man and father of two children. He is also the author of "En Busca de Emma: Dos Padres, Una Hija y Un Sueño de Una Familia" in which he chronicles how he and his partner explored different possibilities for child-rearing and how they came to raise their first daughter.

Obviously for Armando, this was a story that was personal as well and I am sure that it played into why Ricky Martin gave People en Español the exclusive story.  In any case, it's great!  If you would like to thank Armando Correa for running the cover story, please follow him on Twitter and send him a Tweet or two.

Reactions:

• How Ricky Martin is changing the face of Latino fatherhood (Change.org)
• People en Español's Father's Day Issue Has Newly-Out Ricky Martin on Cover (Medaite)
• People en Español Features Gay Dad Rcky Martin on Father's Day Issue (Joe.My.God.)

Previously:

• Ricky Martin greets activist Pedro Julio Serrano on Twitter (May 3, 2010)
• Why Ricky Martin Matters (March 30, 2010)
• The coming out of Ricky Martin: Reactions (March 29, 2010)
• Ricky Martin: "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man" (March 29, 2010)
• What Ricky Martin actually said to TV Aqui (June 22, 2009)
• Ricky Martin is possibly gay, possibly bisexual (June 21, 2010)