There was a time when the number 41 was considered very bad luck in Mexico. The Army used to leave the number 41 out of battalions, and in hospital/hotel rooms, Room #41 would just be skipped out entirely. It was so bad that some people would even skip out their 41st birthday completely!
Why?
This innocuous number became synonymous with Mexican queer culture in the early 1900s following a raid on a private party by police on 17th November 1901. At this party, there were 41 men: 22 dressed as men, 19 as women. There was, in fact, a 42nd person in attendance: Ignacio de la Torre, who was President Porfirio Díaz’s son-in-law. Whilst the police allowed Ignacio to escape, they arrested the remaining 41, beat them, jailed them, convicted them, then later conscripted them into the army as punishment. This became a massive scandal in Mexican society and became known as “The Dance of the 41” (“Baile de los 41”).
Whilst homosexuality was legalised in Mexico as far back as 1871, society remained so hostile to homosexuality that this scandal led to the vilification of the number 41. Calling someone 41 was akin to saying they were queer.
Full Story at The Nomadic Boys
“A man who rides Peruvian paso horses is referred to as a “chalan” – not to be confused with a “chalon” – that’s Peruvian gay slang for a guy with a huge dick!”
Our Peruvian buddy Aaron from Lima is always keen to show off the highlights of his country.
Tourism in gay Peru has exploded over the past decade and alongside this, it has been one of the world’s fastest growing economies. Peru has historically been a very conservative society and quite hostile to its LGBT community.
For example, there are no laws in place for gay couples to enter into civil unions, let alone gay marriage. On top of that, laws meant to protect public morals are often used against gays and lesbians: a protest called Kisses Against Homophobia over the Valentine’s weekend in 2016 was brutally and violently interrupted by the police showing the government’s lack of progress in protecting its LGBT Peruvians.
However, fast forward a year and there is hope for change. More Peruvian politicians are slowly coming out to support the LGBT community. The Civil Union bill was reintroduced into Congress in late November 2016 with strong backing from President Kuczynski.
Then in January 2017, the same President issued a decree prohibiting all forms of discrimination and hate crimes on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Very slowly, Peru is evolving and getting ready to take her place in the pink limelight.
The gay scene in Quito is a lot of fun with a handful of gay bars and discos. But compared to other cities across Latin America like Buenos Aires and Montevideo, we noticed the crowd was largely quite young in comparison. No bear culture here for example…where do all the over 40s hang out?
Ecuador has this weird extreme mix of the very conservative older generation versus the more forward thinking, confident and liberal minded millennials.
It makes sense when you look at the dramatic change in LGBT legislation over the last 20 years. Until 1997, gay life in Ecuador was tough: it was an extremely conservative country, on par with places like Sri Lanka, India or Indonesia where just being caught in a gay bar could get you in trouble with the police.
In 1997, the constitution was changed introducing some of the most progressive gay friendly legislation in the world. For example, full anti-discrimination laws on grounds of sexual orientation were introduced. In the UK we had to wait until 2003 when the equivalent law was passed and in the USA, there is still no federal law outlawing discrimination nationwide.
What’s the first country that comes to mind when you think of tango? We’re guessing Argentina, right?
You’d be half right. Back in the 1880s, the tango was invented by the urban lower classes in the Rio de la Plata basin, which includes both Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
As such, both Argentina and Uruguay claim equal ownership of the tango. In 2009, they made a successful joint application to have tango listed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
We attended the Uruguayan LGBT Chamber of Commerce conference in September 2016, where tango was showcased. To our surprise, two extremely handsome gay Uruguay boys, Juan and Rodrigo, took to the stage and blew us away.
“OMG careful you don’t get caned for being gay over there you two!”
We did of course point out to our concerned friends and family back home that Sharia Law is only in place in one small part of Indonesia in the Northern Aceh province. If the rainbow flag gets out of control in Aceh, you risk being convicted by the Sharia police to 10-150 lashes in public for being gay.
And yes, this now applies to foreigners too!
But we don’t go around waving rainbow flags. Nor do we have any interest in getting publicly canned in Aceh (our caning adventures at the Komodo National Park were more then enough)…