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May Be OK for Gays Large Turnout for World Pride 2000 in Rome |
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By Rex Wockner International News Report New Mexican President May Be OK for Gays
Although the PAN historically has been considered conservative and Catholic -- and PAN governors and mayors have been known to launch crackdowns on transvestites and gay bars -- Fox has positioned himself as a moderate on social issues, including gay rights. During the presidential campaign, Fox dropped a TV attack ad against PRI opponent Francisco Labastida after it was denounced as anti-gay. Using a slang word for someone of undefined sexuality, the ad showed Labastida hoisting a male colleague by the thighs and showed male strippers at a rally for another PRI candidate, the Associated Press reported. After dropping the ad, the PAN ran newspaper ads stating that the party "is not against the gay community in any way. ... In a Fox administration, there will be freedom for people to live without masks," it said.
In another appearance, he promised: "I commit myself to maintain the lay character of the Mexican state and public education. I commit myself to maintain the liberty, diversity and pluralism of Mexican society and never to use the power of the state to impose lifestyles, religious beliefs or codes of personal behavior. To respect the liberty of creation, of culture and of expression of all the groups who form Mexican society." Tijuana gay activist Alejandro Garcia says it seems like there is old-school PAN and new-school PAN. "When the PAN has won mayorships in cities, they always inaugurated a series of raids against sex workers, transvestites and gay cruising areas," Garcia said. "They did that here in Tijuana in 1992, but the gay community responded and talked to the government and the raids stopped. The same scenario played out in Chihuahua, Veracruz and Monterrey. "But I think the PAN has changed," Garcia said. "I think its founders were more conservative and they're gone now. There are new Panistas who are more tolerant. Fox has declared that he is center-left -- which is hardly possible since the party has been center-right -- but the party has clearly improved because of more tolerant activists in its ranks." Garcia doesn't expect significant change for the nation's gays under the Fox administration but, he said, "It's good for democracy in Mexico that the PRI lost the presidency of the republic -- and control of the Senate too." Other activists are less optimistic. "It is going to be worse for gays and lesbians," said Cesar Velazquez, co-director of the Mexico City Pride Committee. "We are really afraid because in sections of the country where the PAN has come into power, there has been a lot of repression, including against gays and lesbians. "I don't trust the PAN," Velazquez said. "Yes, they say they won't discriminate, but the precedents are there. We don't believe anything the PAN says. They are synonymous with the ultra-right and with repression. Right is right. They want to control people." Jaime Marquez, an upper-middle-class gay man in Guadalajara who is not an activist, commented: "I don't like the guy. He's from the PAN and this party doesn't like gay people. Here in Jalisco state, the PAN is in power and a lot of gay people with businesses are not very happy with the party because they try to shut them down and stuff. "A lot of people are happy Fox won just because it's another party," Marquez said, "but to me he seems phony. He says one thing on TV and then in the newspaper he says something different. But who knows? When he was governor of Guanajuato, he improved the economy there by pushing exports. That's the only good thing I know of him. I'm waiting to see what good he might do for the country." Large Turnout for World Pride 2000 in Rome
The gay World Pride Rome 2000 celebration that horrified the
Vatican and right-wing Italian politicians ended with a huge
parade to the Colosseum July 8.
Police estimated a turnout of 70,000, state TV said 200,000, and organizers said 400,000. According to one reporter, "The crowd included young couples with baby strollers, bare-breasted transsexuals in glittery wigs, animal rights activists, a guy in a kilt on stilts, agnostics, bikers and representative of unions and leftist political parties." Another said: "Drag queens stripped down to their leather thongs and stilettos as the march snaked around the side of the Colosseum and the mid-afternoon temperature hit 36 degrees Celsius (96.8F). A man dressed as a Roman Emperor in drag cruised past the gaping arches of the monument in the back of a horse- drawn carriage as marchers filed by carrying placards denouncing the Roman Catholic Church." The march began at Rome's southern walls and ended at Circus Maximus, the site of ancient Rome's chariot track. Speaking one day later to pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter's Square, Pope John Paul II called homosexuality "objectively disordered" and "contrary to the laws of nature." "In the name of the church of Rome I cannot but express bitterness for the affront to the Grand Jubilee of the year 2000 and for the offense to the Christian values of a city that is so dear to the hearts of Catholics across the world," he said. "The catechism makes it clear that homosexual acts are contrary to the laws of nature. The number of men and women with deeply rooted homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This objectively disordered inclination is for the greater part of them a trial. They must be treated with respect, compassion and delicacy. Any sign of unjust discrimination against them must be avoided. Such people are called to carry out the will of God in their lives, and if they are Christian, to unite the difficulties they encounter as a result of their condition to the Lord's sacrifice on the cross." Franco Grillini of the gay-rights group Arcigay fired back: "Who decides what is natural and what is not? Objectively disordered - - what is that supposed to mean? Nobody chooses to be homosexual. Homosexuality is an objective fact. "It is not enough to say that gays should 'be treated with respect, compassion and delicacy,' or that the Catholic Church condemns 'any sign of unjust discrimination,'" Grillini said. "The everyday real conduct of the hierarchy and of those Catholics involved in politics -- the center-right above all -- gives lie to these assertions. ... The real offense is the homophobia and the anti-gay prejudice which is fuelled by the Vatican hierarchy."
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Alejandro Garcia 