The first announcement that a high-profile performer is gay has come to Mexico … making it the first time the country has caught up to the rest of the world in decades.
Twenty-two-year-old pop sensation Christian Chavez announced that he was gay after photos of himself in Canada in a commitment ceremony showed up on the Internet. Ironic, since most Americans are ashamed of the indecent photos of themselves that show up online from their time in Mexico.
In this strongly Catholic country residents were shocked that the tight-pants wearing pop-band dancer with pink, spiked hair was a closet homosexual. I mean, his name is Christian, doesn’t that count for anything anymore? Catholicism is a tough sell these days, even in the countries where Madonna can be seen in a bowl of cereal more often than on MTV.
What this will do to Menudo fans has yet to be determined. Will they begin to question how gay their existing television actors act? Will the soap opera that spawned RBD, the pop group that Chavez is a member of, start gay testing before they hire actors in the future? Can they assure that their hip-gyrating antics won’t hypnotize millions of Mexican youth into gayness? Look what happened with Elvis! No one used to be gay in the US until he started all that crazy dancing.
As far as Mexican soap operas go, it’s not that hard to demonize a gay character—literally. Stick some pink horns on the guy and everyone will get the point. No wait, I think I saw that episode. OK, so they’ll have to get a little bit more creative; and by creative I mean, well, obvious. Maybe if they have Sinead O’Connor burn a picture of him while performing an RBD song, they’ll get the positive reaction they’re looking for.
