[Pink News] A Mexican Outing

Another celebrity has come out of the closet.

This days, this may no longer seem like news anymore after the outings of the likes of Lance Bass and Neil Patrick Harris in recent times. Heck, celebrities coming out seems to hit the headlines about as much as stories of celebrities making racist remarks. It's a strange thing, but you have to admit it really happens.

What makes this one significant is the cultural context. Christian Chavez is a Mexican pop singer who is part of a singing group called RBD. It's a very rare thing for Mexicans to come out and declare their homosexuality, at least based on the reports going around. The country is highly conservative and statements of this nature are quite unheard of in most circles, although this is not to say they don't have gay people. Let's get real - that too is practically impossibly with studies theorizing that at least 10% of any given population is homosexual. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

One can only hope his coming out will not trigger some negative backlash against the gay community in general. While some are bound to be against homosexuals, we always hope that the greater public continues to welcome him as a musical artist and respect his sexual orientation.

This brings me to wondering when will Philippine celebrities be brave enough to come out of the clost. While we have openly gay entertainers, they are those who predominantly match a gay stereotype of being effeminate and flamboyant. While there was the case of Rustom Padilla, that still remains more the exception rather than the rule. I'm not saying everyone's gay - it's just that there are a significant number of people within the entertainment community who have, well, made their presence felt in gay circles but continue to deny allegations of being part of the community for now.

Go figure.

Related Links:

• [Pink News] Oct 29 - Nov 4 Digest
  
• BBC News: Mexican singer breaks gay taboo
  
• Wikipedia: Christian Chavez

Photo linked from BabyDinosaur's photostream.