Gay professional boxer Orlando Cruz has a message for Manny Pacquiao

English is not his first language but openly gay professional boxer Orlando "The Phenom" Cruz has a message for boxing star Manny Pacquiao and his recent comments saying that gays having sex is worse than animals having sex.

Orlando says:

Hi, Manny: For you to say that homosexuality is like animal sex is irresponsible. I am a homosexual. Are you sure you hate me for my lifestyle? Jesus said about the adulteress woman: "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to cast a stone at her."

Hear this first: God asked you to love one another unconditionally. I invite you to meet with me to get to know us as human beings first and I guarantee you will think differently. Maybe afterwards we can do a sparring session. Take care and I will be praying for you and your family. Thank you.

VIDEO (turn annotations on):


Orlando "The Phenom" Cruz next fight will be televised on Telemundo and will take place on Friday, March 4th.

UPDATE: Orlando posted the following message on his Twitter account on Friday, February 19th.  "Because he is my love and I love him despite what Manny Pacquiao may say.  [Pacquiao's] words are like mud to me. Open your mind."

In the photo, Orlando is posing with his husband Jose Manuel.

Por q el es mi amor y lo amo y diga lo q diga @MannyPacquiaoTR Sus palabras para mi son como el fango abre tu mente. pic.twitter.com/kVKU24Y9Jy

— The Phenom Cruz (@ElFenomenoCruz) febrero 19, 2016

Boxer Ana Laura "La Monita" Esteche comes out after winning world championship belt

Professional boxers Ana Laura "La Monita" Esteche and Yohana "Yoki" Giménez (with the pink hair). Photo used by permission courtesy of Martín Canevaro and the 100% Diversity & Rights collective.

In what observers are calling a stunning upset, professional Argentine boxer Ana Laura Esteche defeated three-time defending light welterweight World Boxing Association champion Monica Silvina Acosta when the two met in San Clemente del Tuyú on January 20th (you can watch the whole fight here).

Friends since childhood, Acosta did not wait for officials to announce the fight score and instead took her championship belt from the official who was holding it and handed it to Esteche herself in a show of respect and admiration for the woman who had just defeated her. "It's yours, take care of it, you won fairly and let God guide you," said Acosta - an evangelical preacher outside the ring - to Esteche according to ESPN.

For Esteche, better known in Argentina as "La Monita," it was her second try at the championship and her first world title. It was also the night she became the second professional boxer to ever come out while still active in the sport following the steps of Puerto Rican boxer Orlando Cruz who came out in October of 2012.

In a ringside interview immediately following the fight, Esteche was asked if it had yet dawned on her that she was a world champion. Caught in the moment and overwhelmed by tears, Esteche began by thanking her trainers but extended those thanks to "her woman and my mother-in-law."

She also said she had gave her all during the match to demonstrate the tremendous day-to-day efforts she had put into the fight along with her trainers and "my woman."

Here is that interview after the fight and an additional interview done last week:

In that follow-up interview, which comes at the 4:16 minute mark, the sports anchor asks Esteche about those comments and, with a smile, she says the following of her partner:

Thanks to her, I wake up every morning at 6 or 5 in the morning because I am a bit weak when it comes to sleeping in and she always tells me "c'mon 'gorda', let's go, let's go because this is the time you will get it!' and later she would train with me and my physical trainer on my same level as if she had to fight four rounds and I had to fight ten.  So she would train with me and sometimes better than me because she is is great physical shape. And she would train and box with me, she is truly and excellent person.  And, to be sincere, I am very happy to have a woman like that

Photo via Ring Side

Amazingly, Esteche's partner - who you can see in the video standing behind her with her pink hair color - happens to be another WBA professional boxer who tied in a match earlier that same night:  Johanna "Yoki" Giménez.

In the video Esteche also dedicates her victory to her parents "because it has been a long time since I told them I love them."

Speaking to ESPN's Carlos Irusta, Esterche says that while she is not entirely distant from her parents they do not see each other often and says that they do not approve of her relationship to Giménez.

She also tells him they both come from such poor background that they have to make a living scavenging construction materials from building that have to be torn down in the poorest districts of Buenos Aires. "It builds muscles," Esteche jokes.

Finally, on her decision to come out, Esteche says "It's that it's something that you should not hide, after all happiness is not something you should hide, it's something to be shared and I - we - are happy."

Related:

• "A love story" - Spanish language (ESPN, Jan. 20, 2014)
• "The 'Monita' who never dressed in silk" - Spanish language (La Nación, Jan. 25, 2014)
• World Boxing Association website here

Might update as additional details emerge.

Boxer Orlando Cruz dedicates upcoming title fight to Emile Griffith

I was saddened this week to hear of the passing of boxing legend Emile Griffith.  I saw the documentary of his life "Ring of Fire" when it aired on the USA Network in 2005 and I remembered being moved to tears by the story of a man who had to keep his true self under wraps for the sport he loved (the full documentary is posted below).

From a 2005 Bob Herbert OpEd in the New York Times ("The Haunting of Emile Griffith"):

An extraordinary new documentary, "Ring of Fire," by the filmmaker Dan Klores and his co-director Ron Berger, tells the story of Emile Griffith and this fight that has never stopped haunting him. The film makes it clear that you can't explore that tragic fight and its aftermath without talking about Mr. Griffith's feelings about his own sexuality, which is the other torment he's had to haul around all these years.

One of the things I thought after watching the film was how far we haven't come in 43 years.

The fight on March 24, 1962, was the third between Griffith and Paret. They had split the first two bouts. Over that period Paret had repeatedly taunted Griffith, who had been a hat designer in the Manhattan garment district and was known to frequent gay clubs. At weigh-ins Paret would mock Griffith, and he called him a "maricón," a Spanish word guaranteed to infuriate.

It still infuriates. At lunch, Mr. Griffith's smile faded as he recalled the taunts he took from Paret. "I got tired," he said, "of people calling me faggot."

He said again, as he has many times, that he was sorry Paret had died. But he added: "He called me a name. ... So I did what I had to do"...

I asked Mr. Griffith if he was gay, and he told me no. But he looked as if he wanted to say more. He told me he had struggled his entire life with his sexuality, and agonized over what he could say about it. He said he knew it was impossible in the early 1960's for an athlete in an ultramacho sport like boxing to say, "Oh, yeah, I'm gay."

But after all these years, he wanted to tell the truth. He'd had relations, he said, with men and women. He no longer wanted to hide. He hoped to ride this year in New York's Gay Pride Parade.

He said he hadn't meant to kill Benny Paret, "but what he said touched something inside."

My mind, of course, turned to the story I broke less than a year ago: That of Puerto Rican featherweight professional boxer Orlando "El Fenomeno" Cruz and his decision to come out as a gay man while still active in the sport.

Some wondered if the sport and its fans were ready for a gay boxer and whether Cruz had only set himself up for the pressure of possibly being a target in what at times has been a virulently homophobic sport.

Cruz, instead, embraced his identity like few have done in other sports proudly wearing a the colors of a rainbow flag on his kilt during one fight and dedicating both victories since he came out to the LGBT community.

The pride he has shown in himself in the ring and out of the ring - perhaps improbably - seems to only have won him the respect of the public and so far I do not know of any currently active professional boxer who has brought up the issue of his sexual identity in a derogatory way. If anything, both of his defeated opponents took pains to tell the press that it didn't matter to them whatsoever.

Next up for Cruz on October 12th is a shot at the vacant WBO featherweight title as an underdog to Mexican boxer Orlando "Siri" Salido.  It was just announced that HBO sports will broadcats the fight as a pay per view undercard which would bring Cruz greater exposure --- if he wins.

There are echoes, of course, between Griffith's story and Cruz's story and I wondered if the younger boxer was aware about Griffith's legacy and if it had any impact on his life.

The answer came today in statements Cruz made to Puerto Rico's El Vocero.

Emile was an extremely talented boxer and I will be dedicating my October 12th fight with "Siri" Salido in his honor.

As a boxer he had some great years but those times were not the same as today.  Imagine if being black was seen as bad, if being gay was something that could not even be said out loud. Now that I think about it, Griffith did good, those were times of greater discrimination.

Those times were different. Before we couldn't get married or adopt kids. But now things have changed. I have a lot of respect for Emile and I understand why he might not have been as open. We are living in a more stable time while rejection was predominant during his time.

We feel very sad about his passing and I hope to win the fight in his honor.

I couldn't think of a more fitting tribute to Emile Griffith's life.

Related: 

• Gay boxer Orlando Cruz pauses to remember Emile Griffith (Los Angeles Times)
• Emile Griffith led a tortured life (USA Today)
• Emile Griffith dies at age 75 (The Guardian)

Full documentary: "Emile Griffith: Ring of Fire"

Originally aired on the USA Network in 2005.

Video: Key moments from Orlando "El Fenómeno" Cruz's victory

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.

Reaction:

• Cruising for a bruising (The Dish)

Boxer Orlando "El Fenómeno" Cruz wins second boxing match since coming out as a gay man

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.

This is the second fight he wins after becoming the first active professional boxer to ever come out as a gay man back in October.

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).

Related: 

• Orlando Cruz wins on TKO in 6th (ESPN)
• Puerto Rican featherweight Orlando Cruz comes out (Blabbeando)
• Orlando Cruz: I wanted to take the thorn inside me and have peace (The Guardian)
• Orlando Cruz on his biggest fight yet (The Advocate)

Reaction:

• Boxer Orlando Cruz wins 2nd match since coming out while wearing rainbow kilt as a sign of pride (Towleroad)
• Orlando Cruz wins second fight after coming out (Outsports)
• Orlando Cruz wins second bout as openly gay boxer (Joe.My.God.)
• Meme (After Elton)
• Boxer Orlando Cruz wins second match since coming out (The Advocate)

The surprising connection between Ricky Martin and Orlando Cruz

Backstage, Evita: Steven A. Toledo, Pedro Julio Serrano, Ricky Martin and and Orlando Cruz (via Twitter)

With less than a week to go until his last performance as Ché in the current Broadway revival of "Evita", Ricky Martin welcomed some very special guests backstage at the Marquis Theater on Friday night.

In a photo tweeted after the performance Ricky has his arms around Steven A. Toledo and Pedro Julio Serrano on his right and boxer Orlando "El Fenómeno" Cruz on his left.

Ricky, of course, remains the top Latino celebrity to ever come out after declaring himself a "proud homosexual man" in 2010 while Orlando recently sent shock-waves through the boxing world after coming out in October of last year.  It made him the first professional boxer to ever come out while still competing in the sport and has deservedly earned him the cover of this month's The Advocate.

The two men also happen to be from Puerto Rico which brings us to long-time Puerto Rican LGBT-rights advocate Pedro Julio Serrano.

Months before Ricky came out, he surprised many when he released a statement in solidarity of a series of demonstrations asking the Puerto Rican government for justice in the brutal killing of a young gay man named Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado. The crime shook the island and I also believe it was also a catalyst for Ricky's decision to come out. And, indeed, one of the first things he did after telling the world he was gay was to reach out to one of the leaders behind the demonstrations: Pedro Julio.

The two have become friends and have met a few times since then. Ricky has also often used his powerful social media presence to support actions begun by Pedro Julio as well as defend him when Pedro Julio has come under attack from homophobic elements in the island.

Similarly, months before he announced he was gay, Orlando reached out to Pedro Julio for guidance on the possible reactions and repercussions of taking such a step.  In interview after interview Orlando has shown himself to be a thoughtful, extraordinary and exemplary gay role model. Just as if he had been out all his life.  And he often takes time to say he owes a great deal to Pedro Julio and the advice he provided.

For those of us who know, love and admire Pedro Julio and his soon-to-be husband Steven, we know that the admiration that Ricky and Orlando have expressed towards him is well-deserved.

It's a testament to Pedro Julio's work and the unexpected hearts he has touched during his lifetime and that's the reason I love this photo so much.