Steven Michael Mackin, remembered

My friend, Steven M. Mackin passed away from Ewing's Sarcoma three years ago to the day. He was always taking photos of himself and, in some ways, he fully knew that they might be for posterity. One of the last request he made of me was that, if he died, I would use his photos so that he would never be forgotten. He also left me this silent video as well as this not so silent one as well.

He had beaten cancer once before, but he was also the first to realize that it was back. He kept complaining of stomach pains and asking me if I thought the cancer was back. I had no idea but tried to assure him that it might be something else. Until the end, I think he held strong for the sake of his family and his friends. Even of he probably knew much more than we all did.

Unwavering in his advocacy for others trying to beat Ewing's Sarcoma, and unflinchingly honest with his own battles and fears, Steven left his thoughts and feelings posted publicly for everyone to see on his LiveJournal blog Things I've Found In My Butt (it's sooooo worth a read, starting from the first post). He ultimately lost his battle on October 28th of 2006.

Steven's blog was featured on an Associated Press article in March of 2007 ("Blogging at Life's End"), and he was also the inspiration for "Stomp Out Cancer".

In the meantime, I have tried to maintain contact with his mom, Sheila, and was so glad to see her name pop up on Facebook a few weeks ago! My thoughts and love go to her tonight. Through Steven, I also met the amazing Kawika (here and here), now a friend for life.

And, today, I am more than glad to write this post in Steven's memory. Nothing would be more appropriate, though, than to post this memorial video that was posted a few days after Steven died (below). I had nothing to do with it and was shocked to see my image pop up early in the video, but it remains the rawest and most amazing of the YouTube tribute videos dedicated to Steven available online. The music, courtesy of Alter Bridge, is just right and, in my mind, will forever be linked to Steven. We love you Seven! Rest in peace.

Ecuador: President Rafael Correa vows to fight homophobia in wake of NYC murder

In a week that saw the remains of José Osvaldo Sucuzhañay flown from the United States to Ecuador to be buried near his family yesterday, Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa (right) has vowed to fight against homophobia and xenophobia in his country and elsewhere.

From a Spanish-language article by AFP, an excerpt of which I have translated to English:

The Ecuadorean immigrant José Sucuzhañay, of 31 years of age, was "vilely assassinated for xenophobic reasons, for homophobia; They mistook him for a homosexual and was with his brother" as they walked in Brooklyn, New York, said Correa.

"We will fight together ... to forever uproot these aberrations of certain maladjusted [individuals], uproot them from the face of the earth, from humanity: Xenophobia, homophobia and all kinds of discrimination, all kinds of violence," he said.

Sucuzhañay and his brother Romel were attacked in the early morning of December 7th by what are described as three black men who wielded a bat. While Romel was able to escape without serious injury, José passed away on December 12th after spending days in a coma at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.

President Correa's comments were similar to those made yesterday by another of the Sucuzhañay brothers during José's burial in Cuenca, Ecuador. From The Associated Press:

"My heart is broken and so is that of all my family," his brother German said during a funeral Mass in the cathedral of the southern town of Cuenca. Sucuzhanay's coffin was scattered with roses and covered with the Ecuadorean flag.

"The brutal killing of my brother Osvaldo is the result of xenophobia, of homophobia and racism that our compatriots are experiencing in these times," he said, calling on Ecuador's government to demand that U.S. authorities solve the crime.

Interestingly it was yet another Sucuzhañay brother who lives in New York that had previously denied that any anti-gay slurs had been shouted during the attack as police reports and most accounts picked up by media. From a December 12th article in El Diario La Prensa:

[Diego] Sucuzhañay denied the versions [of events] given by authorities that his brothers Romel and José Osvaldo were shouted anti-gay phrases.

"My brother Romel told me that they shouted insults against Latinos, that they shouted 'Hispanics, sons of bitches,' but not anti-gay insults."

The apparent unease in calling the attack a homophobic one also was reflected by calls for action from certain Latino leaders and Ecuadorean community organizations in New York who highlighted the xenophobic aspect of insults that were allegedly shouted during the attack but never made any mention that there might have been anti-gay slurs shouted as well.

President Correa might have chosen the same route but he seems to understand that the fact that the Sucuzhañay brothers were attacked because a few guys thought they were a gay couple is as troubling as the fact that they were attacked because they were Latinos. Not surprising, then, that he is one of the most progressive Latin American presidents on LGBT issues.

Previously:

re: José Sucuzhañay:

• Photos: José Sucuzhañay vigil in Brooklyn (Dec. 15, 2008)
  
• Human Rights Campaign stands up for straight immigrant in gay bashing (Dec. 14, 2008)
  
• José O. Sucuzhañay has passed away (Dec. 14, 2008)
  
• Two Sunday vigils in response to Buswick hate crime (Dec. 11, 2008)
• Bushwick attack: Were anti-gay slurs shouted by assailants? Does it make it less of a heinous crime if the answer is 'no'? (Dec. 11, 2008)
• More on Bushwick attack against Ecuadorean brothers (Dec. 8, 2008)
• Breaking: Anti-gay, anti-Latino slurs shouted at Ecuadorean men during beating in Brooklyn (Dec. 8, 2008)

re: President Rafael Correa

• New constitution grants gays civil union rights, bans adoption rights (Sept. 29, 2008)
• President Correa falls into political trap, accedes to right wing demands, says gay couples deserve some rights (April 7, 2008)
• President Correa on same-sex marriage, abortion and including 'God' in the constitution (March 31, 2008)
• A push to eliminate constitutional protections for gays and lesbians (March 26, 2008)
• Defense Minister resigns in midst of a 'gays in the military' controversy (Sept. 6, 2007)

Transgender Latina teen murdered in Colorado

History unfortunately keeps repeating itself. Word tonight that a 18 year-old transgender Latina woman has been murdered in Greely, Colorado.

NBC affiliate 9 News reports that close to 200 people gathered today at a Baptist church to mourn the passing of Angie Zapata (born Justin) who was found beaten to death in her apartment a week ago on Thursday.

Police indicate that they have information that might lead to an arrest and have not ruled out that this might be a hate crime but they have also indicated that the killer or killers might be acquaintances of the victim.

On a related matter, blogger TransGriot is taking the Associated Press to task for their common practice of calling trans people by their name of birth instead of their current adopted name ("Another transwoman murdered, another media diss").

AP reporter Mike Peters - who wrote the original story and made no mention of Zapata's gender identity ("Car still missing in homicide") - acknowledged his mistake in a follow up column posted today ("Homicide victim was living as a woman"). Unfortunately he takes a defensive attitude and name-tags the Greely police department, the Weld County's Coroner's Office, and the fact that Angie identified herself with the name of Justin in a couple appearances before a Colorado court for traffic-related violations as reason enough to have identified her as a male in his first report.

Both her parents, who mourn her passing at this time, accepted her fully as a woman and are said to have been greatly supportive of Angie. Let's hope they catch the perpetrators.

Soccer player "outed" in Peru as Argentina hosts gay soccer tournament

Above: Goalkeeper Juan "Chiquito" Flores' professional soccer career might be coming to an end after a homophobic gossip show "outs" him (An extended version of the video here); Below: Argentina's main gay soccer team, DAG.

International gay soccer tournament takes over Buenos Aires - For months now I've been getting bombarded by so many press releases, news items and e-mail messages about this week's international gay soccer tournament in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that in some respects I will be oh-so-happy when the event ends this Saturday (additional information about the tournament can be found at Bloomberg Canada's Digital Journal).

No more newspaper articles about the Mexican team's pink uniforms! No more press releases about cute team mascots! No more debates about why there are no lesbian teams at a "gay and lesbian" event! Or complaints that the event is too expensive for the average Argentinean to attend! (the last two being pretty valid points but nevertheless I'll be happy when the e-mail bombardment stops).

Still, there is no denying that the event, the first of its kind in all of Latin America, is a landmark event that illustrates the amazing advances that the gay community has seen in the region over the last decade.

But, should there be a 'gay' soccer tournament at all? - Last week I read an interesting post over at Dollymix questioning the need to gave a 'gay' soccer tournament at all instead of "working to make straight football a more supportive and welcoming place for gay athletes and fans" which is fine and dandy - except that it's easier said than done.

I mean, to my knowledge, there has never been a single soccer player that has come out as being gay while still on a professional team and I can only name one player who came out after he finished his professional career - and he is said to have committed suicide in part over the pressure and stress that followed his announcement.

No doubt a reflection of the intense homophobia that haunts the sport. No wonder the Brazilian soccer world was "thrown into turmoil" as recent as last month over "insinuations that a player was gay" as this Associated Press article explains.

Peru soccer star in free-fall after video shows him canoodling with two men at a bar - Just a couple of weeks ago, on September 13th, a popular television gossip show in Peru ran video of an apparently inebriated Juan "Chiquito" Flores - a star goalie for Peru's Cienciano professional soccer team - standing at a 2nd floor bar terrace getting pretty chummy with a couple of male friends (see above).

In a longer version of the segment, the show goes at length about the women that have been rumored to be his girlfriends in the past, then takes a cheap-shot at his virility by showing scenes from a Punked!-type prank show in which Flores is caught shrieking when he thinks a television studio has caught on fire, and - finally - they gleefully unveil the video of Flores and his friends at the bar.

Flores' response could not have come faster. The day after the images aired he told Veronica Gasco of Peru21, in no unequivocal terms, that he was not gay and only liked women.

He said that he was out with friends and that the scenes in the video had been taken out of context, that he'd seen a beautiful woman walk by and was trying to point her out to a friend. The kiss that was supposedly caught on camera? Flores says that the music was too loud and that he had to get very close to his friend's ear in order to be understood and that, while he had a number of gay friends and partied at gay bars, he was only sorry to say that he was not gay (there is also a great interview with Jaime Bayly also from Sep. 16th to which I have linked at the bottom of this post).

"Chiquito faggot! Chiquito faggot!" - Denials notwithstanding, the damage to his career seems irreversible, even if it's been days since the video aired.

On September 16th, on the eve of the first match in which Flores played after the images were aired, his teammates were already telling sports publication El Bocon that they would defend Flores from any gay taunts by members of their opposing team or their fans.

Correo reports that Flores' team went on to lose 4-1 and that it was uncharacteristic of the goalie to let so many soccer balls fly past him in a single game. They also said that fans of the winning team, Melgar, filled the air with chants of “Chiquito maricón, Chiquito maricón” ("Chiquito faggot! Chiquito faggot!") which the paper says had a visible effect on Flores.

On the 18th, Libero reported that Flores admitted that insinuations by the gossip show host Magaly Medina had "affected the entire team's performance" and added "if I am seen with a woman, I'm a womanizer; if I'm seen with a man, I'm a maricón."

Things got much worse at Cienciano's next game on September 19th and not only because the team lost again 1-0. At least they couldn't blame Flores for allowing the score: By the time the score came, he had already been removed from the game for attacking a ball-handler (no pun intended).

"He's gone crazy" - That's the Sept. 20th Correo headline in an article that describes how after 28 minutes of play Flores simply walked over to the sidelines and kicked a soccer ball-handler in the shin.

The paper says that from the start of the match every single person in the stadium kept screaming 'maricón, maricón' at Flores and that the goalie lost it when he looked over and saw the ball-handler smile at him. The ball handler, Freddy Caoquira Ccalla, was taken to a hospital to make sure he did not have any fractures but first requested a police inquiry upon which Flores was led off the field by the police and released later after giving his declaration on the incident (there was no fracture but Flores has been ordered to pay the medical costs).

He tells Correo that the ball boy had been throwing insults at him and calling him a fag from the start of the game and that he was overcome by anger and by the discomfort that the chants ricocheting around the stadium walls had caused in him.

Cienciano, Flores team, is said to be seriously considering letting go of Flores early (his current contract with the team ends in December) and told the paper that it could not deal any longer with the 'scandals' surrounding the goalie.

El Bocon says that, as Flores came out of the police station, several people waiting for his release shouted 'maricón' at him and told him he should go to jail.

Bayly probably is right to say Flores is not gay: Back on the 16th Flores also did an telephone interview with popular Peruvian talk show host Jaime Bayly (for those of you who understand Spanish, Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here).

Bayly, who is bisexual, says that it's obvious from the images shown on the tape that there is no romantic link between the men and that the producers of the gossip show edited it with malice and with the sole purpose of damaging Flores' reputation.

Bayly addresses issues related to homophobia, masculinity and male bonding with humor and calls the scandal unjust. And I tend to share his assumption that Flores not gay.

Nevertheless it seems Flores' career might be coming to an end. Perhaps proof that we do need international gay and lesbian soccer tournaments to combat homophobia in soccer while a new reality takes shape.

Previously:

• Oscar De La Hoya in Fishnet Stockings and High Heels (Sept. 20, 2007)

Jaime Bayly interviews in Spanish:

1st interview, parts 1 and 2 - Sept. 16, 2007


2nd interview, parts 1 and 2 - Sept. 23, 2007

Update: Puerto Rico AIDS czar denies there is a waiting list for HIV meds

Housing Works, the powerful NYC HIV/AIDS service and advocacy organization, has been following up on the Puerto Rican HIV/AIDS services crisis that has unfolded over the last few months (as have organizations such as the Latino Commission on AIDS and the National Minority AIDS Council and the grassroots organization UNID@S Dandole Cara al SIDA).

Today, in a report posted on their AIDS Issues Update site, they describe a series of developments that have taken place since we last wrote about the crisis including the appointment of Jorge Delgado Rivas as a new assistant to Puerto Rico's Secretary of Health.

Upon his appointment by Puerto Rican Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila "Rivas became the first Puerto Rican government official expressly charged with overseeing the territory's response to its appalling AIDS epidemic," says Housing Works, which would make Rivas a mini-AIDS czar, I guess.

Activists have generally applauded some of the recent steps taken to address the crisis, including the hiring of Rivas, but the honeymoon might be over.

After a month on the job, Housing Works says that Rivas has joined the Puerto Rican government in denying that there is a waiting list for newly infected HIV patients seeking medications - as has been charged by community advocates such as Jose F. Colon.

The truth, it appears, might be murkier: For the full article please go to "Wating Game."

In the uncredited article, Housing Works also raises questions about Riva's qualifications for the post and challenge an Associated Press report that Rivas is a physician. Apparently Rivas only holds a PhD in administration from a non-accredited school once based in New Hampshire but now based in St. Kitts and, Housing Works ads, "his only AIDS-related experience has been volunteering at a handful of AIDS service groups" and that Rivas is HIV positive.

Colon for one, is willing to give Rivas a chance and that is saying something, coming from one of the lead critics of HIV services in the island as an advocate living with AIDS.

Colon told Housing Works: "We can't expect Delgado to be an angel. He still has to deal with the bureaucracy here, but he listens. And I wholeheartedly give applause to a person living with AIDS who is trying to understand what the whole process is."

Previously:

• Patricia Neal Warren on Puerto Rican AIDS crisis (June 11, 2007)
• United giving a face to AIDS - in Puerto Rico (June 8, 2007)
• Hero: Jose F. Colon (June 5, 2007)
• In Puerto Rico, AIDS care in crisis (June 5, 2007)

Colombia: Colombia's Right Derails Gay Rights Bill

Photos: Up to 100 gays and lesbians took to the streets of Bogota, Colombia today to protest the unprecedented sinking of a bill that had been approved by both the Colombian senate and congress on a last minute legislative move from conservative senator.

The Associated Press can tell it much better than I probably can so here's a link to a detailed article published today in The Washington Post and other newspapers.

Mexican-born trans man wants to be high school prom king in Fresno

Tony Covarrubias, who was born in Jalisco, Mexico as a woman, wants to be crowned king at tonight's Fresno High School prom night event. The Associated Press says that advocates believe that this is the first time that a transgender person openly runs for prom royalty but leads the article by calling Tony by his female name and refers to him as "she" throughout the article. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has met with the AP in the past to address the terminology they use and have shown themselves encouraged by their treatment of certain stories on transgender issues but apparently some work remains to be done.

UPDATE: No prom king crown for Covarrubias.