Mexico City Goes Gaga Over Last Monster Ball

The Monster Ball Tour was huge. 201 shows, spanning four continents, in eight legs, taking two years to complete. Yet all good things need to come to a close eventually; and the Monster Ball did so, this month, in two amazing performances in Mexico City.



This was Lady Gaga at her finest; with three full blown shows in Mexico, and several more side-events and promotions. Her main performances were at Estadio Tres de Marzo stadium, in Guadalajara, then two more at Foro Sol, in the capital city. All three shows were filled to bursting with highly appreciative crowds. (On her website, one girl tells of how she attended the concert without her father's permission. He hasn't spoken to her for a fortnight since, but she says that it was so worth it!)

There were some truly golden moments during the Mexican leg of the Monster Ball. Alejandro Fernández is one of Mexico's more versatile singing superstars. He has previously dueted with Beyoncé, Nelly Futado and a host of musical legends, like Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras. He was name-checked in Guadalajara, before Lady Gaga sang her hit, Alejandro. It gave a whole new meaning to her stomping lyric:

"You know that I love you, boy
Hot like Mexico, rejoice!
At this point I've got to choose
Nothing to lose."



In Mexico City, Lady Gaga encouraged the audience to sing the traditional Mexican song, 'Cielito Lindo' to her. The performer sat on the stage, on a high stool, waving her hands, then applauding, as the 55,000 strong crowd serenaded her. This was on Cinco de Mayo, so it gave an extra layer of celebration to the festivities.

But, of course, the biggest news of the Mexican shows was the premier of 'Americano'. It's a song about gay rights, particularly the defeat of Proposition 8 in California, USA, which sought to ban same sex marriages. Yet the sound is Mexican. Lady Gaga wanted to tie the theme in with a statement about immigration laws in the USA. The couple in her Californian marriage are American and Mexican.

Her producer, Fernando Garibay, described Lady Gaga's direction on the song, "I remember her saying, 'Yes, I want mariachi, I want Latin percussions. I want to go big.' I'm so used to people in the industry saying, 'Latin: It's a little bit cheesy'; but she was like, 'F*** that! Let's go full Mexicano.' We started with me on guitar and her on piano, kind of wrote the lyric on the spot, and she sang it all the way through, and that's how the song was born."

The words are bilingual. Half are in American English and the other in Mexican Spanish. As she unveiled it, in Guadalajara, the crowd went insane. Loud cheers and applause met it and the stadium echoed to the sound afterwards. It was a triumph.



Monster Ball support stars, Semi Precious Weapons, released this footage a couple of days ago. It takes us backstage, at the biggest show on Earth, as it played out in Mexico City.



Lady Gaga and her support crew are welcome back in Mexico anyday!

Minerva: Pride in Mexican Beer

A brand new beer, targetting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender market, has been launched in Mexico City.

Believed to be the first of its kind in the world, the beverage has labels depicting articles of gay pride. These are designed to be unglued, from the bottle, and worn as badges.

The 'artisan honey ale' arrives as 'Salamandra' or 'Purple Hand', both of which are buzz-words or icons harking back to the gay civil rights movements of the 1960s. They are designed in colors, which also have significance within the LGBT community. 'Salamandra' has a rainbow icon, while 'Purple Hand' is, well, purple.

Brewed by Minvera and distributed by Bodega 12, the malt-based beer contains 100% organic honey. Dario Rodriguez Wyler, the company's commercial director, explained, “We're out in the market, with great respect, with the idea of offering a product directed to the gay-lesbian community, that has been ignored for too long, but is important and very demanding."



On October 31st, 1969, sixty members of the Gay Liberation Front and the Society for Individual Rights sat down in front of the Examiner offices, in San Francisco, USA. They were there to protest a series of homophobic articles, carried by the newspaper, concerning the city's gay and lesbian bars. Employees, inside the building, took revenge upon the protestors by emptying purple printer ink over them, from a third-storey window. Some say it was a barrel of ink; others say that they were several small bags of ink.

Whichever way it was, protestors were soon covered in the stuff. When the police arrived, it was to arrest those outside. None of the Examiner staff were ever so much as cautioned. However, some protestors did get away. They used their saturated clothing and bodies as ink pads, in order to leave purple hand-prints all over the city. It became a powerful display of gay power, in the climate of the times. The incident became known as 'Friday of the Purple Hand'.

Meanwhile, salamandra (salamander) can be described as a sexual innuendo, best exemplified by drinking the beer directly from the bottle.



'Purple Hand' and 'Salamandra' are already available in bars and clubs throughout Mexico City, Guadalajara and several beach resort areas, including Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos. Minerva are also planning to open a 'Purple Hand' club, in Mexico City. The ale is already due for export to the US, Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia and Japan.

Minerva is just a tiny brewery, located in Jalisco, however they appear to have got this right. The company sold out of all 500 cases of their gay pride beer within just two days. They are naturally brewing more!

Same Sex Marriages Constitutional in Mexico City

The voting was a landslide. Eight ministers voted in favour; two against; and one abstained. The issue was whether same sex marriage is constitutional in the Federal District. Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, based in Mexico City, declared that it most certainly is.

However, decisions have been postponed on the addendums; namely - does this apply to the rest of the country, outside Mexico City? And is the right of same sex couples to adopt children equally constitutional?

The latter issue, in particular, has come under fierce opposition from the Catholic Church and Mexico's conservative government. Nevertheless all of the signs indicate that both of these questions will be eventually answered in the affirmative.

The Mexico City Legislative Assembly, headed by Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, had originally approved the bill, in December 2009, though it didn't become law until 4 March 2010. Its forerunner, which became effective on 16 March 2007, had approved civil unions. This was the first of its kind in Latin America and, by December 2009, 736 unions had taken place.

The updated law went much further than ever before. Same sex couples had the right not only to fully marry, but to adopt children; take out joint bank loans; be named as the spouse in insurance policies; inherit wealth, and much more. It made homosexual marriages equal to their heterosexual counterparts. So far, 320 same sex marriages have taken place under its protection.


Jorge Cerpa and Antonio Medina
- the first same sex couple to marry in Mexico
However, the government of Mexico is President Felipe Calderon's right-wing Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party). A challenge to the new law was soon set in motion. The government argued that the law would be destructive to families. The Mexican constitution protects families and procreation and therefore, the government declared, allowing same sex marriages had to be unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court, hearing the case, disagreed. Ministers Sergio Valls, Olga Sánchez, José de Jesus Gudiño, Juan Silva Meza, Luis María Aguilar, José Ramón Cossío, Fernando Franco and Arturo Zaldívar all voted in favour of its retention. Judge Gudiño commented, "I have tried to seek, and I don’t find, a way in which this could be unconstitutional."

Judge Franco made the point that, as 'procreation is not an essential element of matrimony' (you can still be married and not have children), then the law 'does not run counter to the protection the constitution grants to the family and procreation'.

The court will meet again, on Monday, to discuss the remaining two issues - nationwide application of the law and the adoption of children by same sex married couples. If the law is passed nationwide, then Mexico will join Argentina, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain and Sweden, as the only countries worldwide to afford full equality to its citizens, regardless of sexual orientation.



This will be the big news of the day for many readers of this blog. I'm guessing anyway, given the sheer amount of times that people find it by searching such keywords as, 'cancun gay festival', 'riviera maya gay', 'maya homosexuality' and 'gay tours of riveria maya'. At least 20% of people finding us seem to do so by searching for information about the gay scene in Mexico, no doubt lured here by a previous blog entry: Gay Vacations in the Riviera Maya. To you then, I dedicate this blog entry. :)

Edit: Since writing this blog entry, the Supreme Court has decreed that homosexual marriages must be recognized throughout Mexico. However, it stopped short of ruling that all states must allow marriages to take place within their borders. It also ruled that same-sex couples may jointly adopt children, though again only in Mexico City. Their rights as parents, however, must also be recognized throughout the country.

Gay Vacations in the Riviera Maya

Riviera Maya is the coastline from Cancún down to Tulúm. It is fast becoming the vacation destination of choice for the international gay community. They are all the same reasons that heterosexual families flock to the Méxican Caribbean - the paradise setting; the tropical weather; the beautiful beaches; the Mayan archaeological sites; the party atmosphere; the food, drink and fun. However, there is the added benefit that, unlike many other countries, México welcomes them. The gay vacationer can enjoy the same civil rights as at home or, in some cases, even exceed them.




Homosexuality was never banned in México. This legal status was strengthened in 2001, when the Federal Constitution, article 1, was amended to prohibit discrimination based on 'preferences'. This was clarified further in 2003, when a Federal Anti-Discrimination Law was passed. The wording made it absolutely clear that no-one could be persecuted for their homosexuality. A whole department was set up to enforce the law throughout the country.

Finally, in 2009, federal law legalized same-sex marriage, though it was up to the individual states whether they wished to allow this under state law. So far, México City and the state of Coahuila have signed up, but Quintana Roo can't be far behind. It is also legal in México for transgender people to officially change their name and gender; and for homosexuals to adopt children. There are openly gay and transgender elected politicians. (For details about the age of consent, please see a previous blog entry, 'Is It Legal?')

The Riviera Maya isn't awash with exclusively gay resorts and clubs, though they do exist. This is mainly because it's not seen as that big a deal. Gay men and women just merge with their heterosexual counterparts, simply eyeing up a different gender in the clubs. However, Cancún traditionally hosts an International Gay Festival in May and a smaller festival in the fall. There was a Pride Parade in the city during June.

There are three main exclusively gay clubs in the Riviera Maya:

* Picante Bar, in Cancún, has been going strong since the 1980s. The clientele are mixed gay men and lesbians. There are theme nights, including drag queens, strippers, Go-Go Boys and drink promotions. Thursday is always tequila night, complete with free shots to start the party rolling. It's quite a small venue that can get very crowded after midnight, when all of the locals turn up. It is located in downtown Cancún, at El Centro, in the Plaza Gallerias, on Av. Tulum 20.

* Karamba Bar, in Cancún, is the largest club/disco catering mostly to gay men. The party only really starts after midnight, when the locals finish work and rush to the club. Entertainment includes drag queens, strippers and karaoke, but the club is mainly known for its disco and great atmosphere. There will be a Mr Gay Mexico Competition held there on October 26th, 2010, though there's plenty of eye candy for the rest of the year too. It is located in downtown Cancún, at El Centro, on Av. Tulum 11. More details on their website

* Playa 69, in Playa del Carmen, is the only exclusively gay hangout there. The clue to the tone of the place is in its title, so expect a lot of explicit cruising inside. The crowd are generally 20-30s; the decor is largely mirrored; and the music a mix of hot beats and trance. Again the party really kicks off after midnight with the arrival of the locals. It is located in 5th Ave, between Calle 4 and Calle 6, next door to the 7-11 store.

As for hotels, you will not find one turning away your custom based on your sexuality. If you do prefer that extra security though, it's worth noting that Cancún's Hyatt Hotel has listed itself in the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association; while the six room, boutique hotel, Casa Sirena, on Isla Mujeres, is not only owned by a gay couple, but was named TripAdvisor's number one B&B on the island.

There is no 'official' beach catering solely for gay men and women. Unofficially tourists and locals alike tend to congregate in a section of Playa Delfines beach (just south of the Hilton Hotel), in Cancún. This is often the starting point for festival and Pride activities too.

In addition to these venues, the gay community get to visit all the same attractions, clubs, bars, restaurants and beaches as every other tourist. Therefore, it's not hard to see why Rivera Maya is being recommended on gay travel sites and is increasingly awash in the pink currency.