Hiato y San Francisco
Posted: January 29, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: activismo, badlands, butterfly brigade, California, Castro, Centro Histórico, ciudad de méxico, crímenes de odio, distrito federal, Estados Unidos de América, gay, GLBT Historical Society, GLBT History Museum, greenwich village, harvey milk, harvey milk plaza, harvey's, homofobia, levi's, lgbt, México, museo, nueva york, San Francisco, starbucks, tenderloin, toad hall, union square, viajes Leave a comment »Después de más de un mes de no publicar nada en este espacio, hoy lo retomo. El final de 2012 estuvo lleno de trabajo, proyectos nuevos y, finalmente, unas deliciosas vacaciones en San Francisco. Comparto un par de anécdotas y cosas de nuestro viaje que me parecen particularmente interesantes:
Conocí el GLBT History Museum de la GLBT Historical Society. Ambos son proyectos jóvenes: el primero cumplió dos años en diciembre y la segunda tiene menos de veinte años de existir. El museo es chiquito, en el corazón del barrio de Castro (un espacio clave en la historia del movimiento gay, sobre todo de Estados Unidos). Lo ves todo en una hora o menos.
Pero hay dos cosas que me parecen padrísimas. Primero, el apoyo que ha recibido de su comunidad más inmediata: financiamiento de parte de bares y restaurantes de la zona como Badlands, Harvey’s y Toad Hall, sumado al de marcas y empresas con más capacidad económica como Levi’s y Starbucks, y el gobierno local. Segundo, el esfuerzo de toda la gente involucrada y el interés auténtico por mostrarle al mundo un poco de la historia de un movimiento que ha dado forma a su ciudad, a su país, y más allá.
Insisto: el espacio es chico y el material exhibido por ahora es poco, pero es una pincelada muy (por más cursi que me parezca describir algo con la siguiente palabra) bonita del acervo de la GLBT Historical Society. Estas redes del Butterfly Brigade fueron de mis piezas favoritas.
Un fragmento de la información que las acompañaba:
In the Tenderloin neighborhood, some took up arms; other publicized police harassment. In the Valencia Corridor, the Women’s Building held forums on the uses of gay rage. In the Castro, gays turned camp into consciousness, carrying giant butterfly nets to capture would-be bashers. The giant butterfly nets hanging overhead in this gallery were used as props by the Butterfly Brigade, a San Francisco organization founded in 1976 that organized street patrols to prevent antigay violence. The group carried the nets in Gay Freedom Day parades and at community events throughout the late 1970s to symbolically catch gay-bashers and to raise awareness about self-defense and safety in the GLBT community.
San Francisco es reconocida como la (o una de las) meca(s) de la comunidad gay. En general, en la ciudad se percibe mucha tolerancia, respeto, pocas miradas sorprendidas ante parejas homosexuales. A mi novio y a mí nos llamó la atención ver mensajes como éste escritos con gis en varias esquinas de la ciudad. Ésta en Sutter Street y Grant Avenue, muy cerca de Union Square:
Esto me recordó casos de crímenes homofóbicos y muy violentos en el Greenwich Village de Nueva York cuando vivía allá. Y casos como el de este fin de semana en el Centro Histórico del Distrito Federal. Llama la atención que en barrios, zonas o ciudades que para muchos son amigables a la diversidad sexual es donde haya (¿más?) muestras de intolerancia.
A propósito de esto, una réplica de un mapa de asaltos homofóbicos elaborado por una asociación civil en 1979 y que ahora está en el GLBT History Museum:
Aquí la bandera, para rendir honores, en Harvey Milk Plaza:
Por último, también del museo, un objeto para fans from hell de Harvey Milk: la mesa de su cocina (si ven la película, ¡ahí aparece!)
GLAAD Media Awards
Posted: June 8, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 30 Rock, comics, Cory Monteith, Ellen Degeneres, entertainment, fundraising, gay, GLAAD, glaad media awards, Glee, homeless, interview, Josh Hutcherson, lgbt, Los Ángeles, media, MTV, Naya Rivera, New York, non-profit organizations, Rich Ferraro, Ricky Martin, San Francisco, The Ali Forney Center, The Daily News, The Hunger Games, The Trevor Project, The Wall Street Journal, theater, Tracy Morgan, TV, USA Leave a comment »Each year the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) gives out a number of media awards to honor outstanding images and stories of LGBT people. Since they first began in 1990, they’ve become the single most prestigious recognition of its kind. In 2012, the 23rd GLAAD Media Awards were presented in ceremonies in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. This last one just took place last weekend.
A few weeks ago I talked to Rich Ferraro, Director of Communications at the organization, about the awards and the organization’s influence in the media.

How did the GLAAD Media Awards start? What is their purpose?
GLAAD is an organization that works with the media to tell stories about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people. We work with a wide range of media from entertainment outlets, movie studios and TV networks to national news outlets in America, religious press, sports media, online media. We’ve seen that when people hear stories about LGBT people, and allies of LGBT people, they come to learn that LGBT people deserve the same opportunities as they do.
The GLAAD Media Awards honor those stories. They began with an awards ceremony in New York 23 years ago with just a handful of honorees, because LGBT issues were not so spoken about in the media, and certainly not spoken about in a positive way. We wanted a way to say you’re doing a good job, and we want others to follow. And now what we’ve seen is that the awards have become the most visible LGBT event in America, and likely around the world. We’ve had celebrities from Ricky Martin to Ellen Degeneres and Josh Hutcherson, star of The Hunger Games.
Can you tell me about the process of choosing honorees?
We have nominees in English and Spanish-language for a total of 35 categories including news, entertainment, TV, film, as well as some smaller parts of our culture like theatre, comic books, where stories of LGBT people are impacting our culture and creating change. GLAAD has a series of volunteer juries with expertise and with industry experience in all of these different areas. The juries come up with a pool of nominees with a termometer in the media year-round, whether it’s music artists who have used their recent albums to raise awareness on LGBT issues, or monitoring local news media.
GLAAD’s Board of Directors, staff and some of our major donors choose. They vote on the winners. The criteria for voting on the awards recipients is that they are fair, accurate and inclusive of our community, of the full diversity in the LGBT community, it should be original content, a news story that we haven’t heard before, tactful, reaching Americans and those around the world, and overall quality.
There are three ceremonies. Is there a different set of categories or audience for each? Do they have different goals?
The goal of each ceremony is to provide a platform for celebrities and media outlets to talk about their support for LGBT people. It is also to honor public figures and media outlets who are doing an exemplary job. The GLAAD Media Awards have become an industry benchmark that a lot of different movie studios, production companies, newspapers and television networks strive for. They want this recognition. They want to know that they are doing a good job for our community.
The GLAAD Media Awards are also a fundraiser for GLAAD’s work year-round to tell stories of LGBT people. The awards in the three different cities are part of our fundraising. It’s also kind of a way for us to get in front of different communities around the country. In addition to the people who attend the events, each of these has a program with young adults, LGBT and their allies, who come to the awards for free through generous donations from our sponsors. They are able to interact with others like them, to say hello to celebrities who support them for who they are, and they get to see the show.
Do you think the GLAAD Media Awards somehow help push forward or enhance someone’s career, a certain media or show’s success?
I think what they’ve done is they’ve pushed celebrities, public figures and media to do a better and more proactive job at telling LGBT stories.

Cory Monteith and Naya Rivera, stars of “Glee” and this year’s hosts at the NYC ceremony.
Speaking of GLAAD’s work more generally, where does GLAAD draw the line between calling out on media’s unfair representation of LGBT people and issues, holding them accountable for their words and images, and making it seem as if GLAAD is maybe trying to censor the media?
More and more when we’re calling out celebrities or media outlets, we’re trying to do more than just get an apology. We’re trying to make it a teachable moment for our culture, and we’re trying to start a national dialogue.
Last year Tracy Morgan, a comedian and actor, made a joke in a standup routine that if his son was gay he would stab him. At GLAAD we hear stories when we work with organizations such as The Trevor Project, we know of the harm and what could happen to LGBT young people when their parents don’t accept them. We’ve also heard terrible stories about the violence that LGBT people face. What we wanted with Tracy was not to bully him into an apology, not to get a two-sentence press statement, but we wanted to use that as a way to really start a national dialogue about what it means when parents reject their LGBT kids, and the violence that LGBT people face.
We spoke with Tracy Morgan, we told him we wanted to take him to The Ali Forney Center, which is a homeless shelter for LGBTs in New York City. He went there with us, he met with young adults whose parents didn’t approve of who they were, and as a result these kids were turned away. Thankfully they had an organization such as The Ali Forney Center to welcome them.
Tracy then spoke with the media and told his fans, who are people that maybe wouldn’t generally hear of this, about why they should accept LGBT people. They heard from someone they admire and from someone whose career they follow that the right thing to do is to accept your kids no matter what. We also worked with teens at The Ali Forney Center to get them to talk about their own stories in the press. After they met with Tracy they went to The Daily News, The Wall Street Journal, MTV News, to some really powerful and international news publications so they could talk, not only about meeting with Tracy but also about their own personal stories.
More and more we’re really trying to push the envelopes. It’s not so much about GLAAD versus the media. It’s about GLAAD telling a wider story.

You can follow Rich Ferraro and GLAAD on Twitter, learn more about GLAAD Media Awards and this year’s honorees here, and read about a project I collaborate with on GLAAD’s blog.
Pride Runners: corriendo contra el VIH
Posted: December 2, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Arizona, Atlanta, Bosque de Chapultepec, Carlos García de León, Carlos Ruiz, Censida, Chapultepec, ciudad de méxico, Clínica Especializada Condesa, deportes, df, Eduardo Escalante, Gilberto Ángeles, Hotel W, Instituto del Deporte, Instituto Mexicano de la Juventud, La Casa de la Sal, lgbt, Living, Londres, Los Ángeles, Madrid, nueva york, Ohio, Ohm, Penélope Ruiz, Pride Runners, San Francisco, Seattle, Secretaría de Salud, Secretaría de Turismo, Sida, Texas, Toronto, Vancouver, VIH 1 Comment »Este sábado 3 de diciembre se llevará a cabo la primera carrera atlética nocturna en el Bosque de Chapultepec. Con motivo del Día Internacional de Lucha contra el Sida (1 de diciembre), Pride Runners invita a todos a que “corramos contra el VIH”.
Esta carrera se realiza desde hace 30 años en Nueva York, y hoy tiene presencia también en Arizona, Atlanta, Los Ángeles, Ohio, San Francisco, Seattle, Texas, Toronto, Vancouver, Londres y Madrid. La intención es que también en la Ciudad de México se vuelva un evento anual.

Representante de Clínica Especializada Condesa, Gilberto Ángeles (Sectur DF), Penélope Ruiz (Pride Runners), representante de La Casa de la Sal, Carlos García de León (Censida), persona no identificada.

Conferencia de prensa en Hotel W.
Durante la conferencia de prensa que los organizadores dieron hace unas semanas en el Hotel W, Penélope Ruiz, del equipo organizador, informó que hasta ese día había mil personas inscritas y esperan 3 mil. Explicó también que con cada carrera se elegirá una institución diferente para ser beneficiada con los fondos recaudados, pero siempre será una cuyo trabajo tenga que ver con VIH. Este año es La Casa de la Sal, que celebra 25 años de dar orientación, apoyo emocional y compañía a personas que viven con VIH/Sida.
Creo que la causa del VIH es muy noble, necesaria y que los recursos a veces no son suficientes para atender a las personas que viven con el virus, hacer campañas de prevención y demás. Pero me parece que hay otros temas o problemas vinculados a las personas LGBT que no están siendo atendidos, y que me gustaría que recibieran más difusión y dinero: bullying, becas para personas interesadas en hacer investigación de temas de diversidad sexual, organizaciones no gubernamentales en el interior del país, programas educativos o campañas en contra de la homofobia, jóvenes LGBT en situación de calle o con problemas de drogadicción, crear un centro comunitario LGBT que tenga impacto a nivel local (o mejorar y aprovechar mucho más el que ya existe).
Por otro lado, aplaudo la convocatoria de los organizadores que obtuvieron apoyo de marcas importantes, medios de comunicación y agencias de gobierno local, además de la seriedad con la que han manejado la información (a diferencia de la otra carrera celebrada en octubre).

Karem López, encargada de comunicación, respondió algunas de mis preguntas:
¿Cómo surge la idea de organizar esta carrera? Surge a finales de 2009 después de una plática entre amigos de la revista Ohm y Dream Merka Solutions con la finalidad de cubrir el aspecto deportivo que hacía falta dentro de la comunidad LGBT. Quisimos hacer un evento dirigido al mercado rosa pero con convocatoria abierta a todos.
¿Qué esperan lograr con ella? Tres aspectos muy importantes: poder ayudar año con año a alguna asociación u organización que apoya a niños, jóvenes y adultos que viven con VIH/Sida y brindar una mejor calidad de vida. Este año con la participación de todos podremos ayudar a La Casa de la Sal. Otro aspecto es fomentar el deporte en la comunidad rosa y unirnos a las campañas de la no discriminación a la diversidad sexual. El último, pero no menos importante, es sumarnos a la lucha contra el VIH.
¿Qué tipo de apoyo han recibido del gobierno o del sector privado? ¿Qué tipo de reacciones escépticas o negativas ha habido? Por parte del gobierno hemos obtenido una respuesta favorable ya que hasta ahora tenemos el apoyo de la Secretaría de Turismo, Secretaría de Salud, Instituto Mexicano de la Juventud, Instituto del Deporte del Distrito Federal, Clínica Especializada Condesa y Centro Nacional para la Prevención y el Control del VIH/Sida. Por parte del sector privado se han acercado distintas marcas a apoyar y difundir el evento. Ciertas empresas, por cuestiones de “valores y/o políticas”, dicen no poder apoyar este tipo de eventos. Desde el inicio de la planeación del evento han surgido algunas envidias e ideas escépticas sobre la imposibilidad de llevarlo a cabo, pero no nos queda más que demostrar que somos los pioneros en llevar a cabo el concepto del evento como la primera carrera dirigida a la comunidad LGBT.
Mañana, de 9:00 a 16:00 horas, se entregará un paquete a cada participante inscrito y, si no me equivoco, las inscripciones seguirán abiertas en ese horario. El costo para participar es de $280 y hay varias categorías. La carrera inicia a las 19:00 horas, la meta permanecerá abierta hasta que llegue el último corredor, y después habrá una fiesta en el Living. Más información en Twitter, Facebook y su página web.
Gracias a Carlos Ruiz por sus atenciones a la prensa y a Eduardo Escalante por las fotos. Yo me perderé el evento. Si van, espero sus comentarios.
English version of LGBT en Español: transgender youth, Ricky Martin in Honduras, gay telenovelas
Posted: November 11, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: adoption, Africo Madrid, Al rojo vivo, Animal Político, Archdiocese of Mexico, Cada quien su santo, Catholic Church, Chaz Bono, CNN México, Colombia, coming out, Coming Out Day, El último matrimonio feliz, El Gráfico, El Mensajero, Eva Longoria, Gabriela Tagliavina, Genaro Lozano, GLAAD, Hollywood, homophobia, Honduras, Kate del Castillo, La Opinión, Latin America, Latina Magazine, lgbt, LGBT en Español, Los Ángeles, marriage equality, Mega TV, Miguel Cane, Milenio, Occupy Wall Street, Reforma, Ricky Martin, same-sex marriage, San Francisco, Telefutura, Telemundo, telenovelas, transgender, TV Azteca, Univision, Without men, Yurina Melara 1 Comment »From GLAAD’s blog, here’s the newest edition of LGBT en Español where I collaborated (more information on this project here):
Awareness of transgender youth in Spanish-language media
Last month, Univision.com published a 22-page photo essay titled “The 7 Signs of a Transgender Child,” that began with Chaz Bono’s story and explained his role in transgender visibility. The piece delved into transgender people in history and legal challenges, debunked myths and offered parental advice on how to best support a transgender child. In late September, CNN México published an article titled “Transgender children, the difficult path to their true identity,” that details the story of two American transgender youth, Tammy Lobel and Mario. Despite some inconsistent gender pronoun use, the article shed light on the stories and struggles of some transgender youth.
Ricky Martin Faced Anti-Gay Opposition in Honduras. 
Ricky Martin’s October concert in Honduras garnered controversy after far-right activists demanded that the government deny his visa. In the weeks leading up to the concert, anti-LGBT religious leaders sought the help of Africo Madrid, the nation’s Minister of the Interior, who stated Martin’s family “is not the type of family that Honduran law and society wants to construct and promote to youth.” An age restriction limiting concert entry to those 15 years of age and older was added as a result of the protest. Nevertheless, the concert went off without a hitch in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa. This story was extensively covered by the Honduran media as well as U.S. outlets such as Univision.com, Impre.com, Telemundo’s Al rojo vivo and Mega TV’s Paparazzi Magazine among others.
Developments in LGBT-inclusive telenovelas
In the last edition of LGBT en Español, we introduced you to Harold and Alcides, the two gay protagonists of the Telefutura re-airing of the Colombian telenovela, El último matrimonio feliz (The last happy marriage). Things are getting complicated as the two find themselves in a love triangle with Daniel (Felipe Calderon), Harold’s much younger and financially dependent ex-boyfriend who hasn’t come to terms with the relationship’s end. Meanwhile, Alcides is struggling with coming out to his friends and dealing with his feelings for Harold. El último matrimonio feliz airs weekdays on Telefutura at its new time 8:30p.m. ET/OT and 7:30 p.m. CT. Meanwhile in Mexico, a news outlet, El Gráfico, mentioned in an article that the Mexican television network TV Azteca is in the development process for a telenovela, Cada quien su santo, which will feature a gay character and his relationship with his homophobic father. Neither an air-date nor U.S. syndication were mentioned in the article.
LGBT in Mexico: Catholic Church challenged on LGBT equality; LGBT bloggers. Mexico’s nationally-distributed newspaper Milenio published an article about the LGBT community organizing to phone bank to reach Catolitel, the hotline of the Archdiocese of Mexico. The nature of the calls is to complain about LGBT exclusion from the Catholic Church, specifically the opposition to adoption and marriage for LGBT people. Reforma, another nationally distributed and high circulation newspaper, unveiled a new blog by columnist Genaro Lozano, who writes about LGBT issues in a positive way. Lozano recently posted a piece about LGBT equality in Latin America. And the Mexican political website Animal Político published an article by writer and journalist Miguel Cane, in which he tells of his experience as a victim of homophobia.
LGBT occupation of Wall Street, adoption, and Hollywood 
Los Angeles-based Spanish-language newspaper La Opinión published an article by Yurina Melara Valiulis about the inclusion of LGBT people and organizations in the Los Angeles version of the national Occupy Wall Street Movement. Another article by Valiulis appeared in San Francisco’s El Mensajero, about Los Angeles County’s campaign “Raise a Child,” which aims to encourage LGBT couples to adopt children. In honor of Coming Out Day, English-language publication Latina Magazine published a piece on the top six openly gay Latino celebrities in Hollywood. And Univision.com reported in an article that Eva Longoria’s intimate scenes with Kate del Castillo in the movie Without men have been censored in Spain. The article is also linked to a video interview that Univision did with the movie’s director Gabriela Tagliavina, who talks about some of the film’s LGBT elements.
- Daniel Alvarenga, Brian Pacheco, Monica Trasandes, and Enrique TorreMolina contributed to this report.












