Eccentric Mexican singer/songwriter Juan Gabriel surprised fans this week by uploading a video of himself intimately lounging with a mystery man in a hotel room.
The 64-year-old Latin star, often hailed as the “Mexican Elton John,” is usually very private with his personal life. Fans and media outlets have long alluded to him allegedly being gay, but he has only addressed the question once formally, telling a Univision reporter “lo que se ve, no se pregunta” (“don’t ask about something that is obvious”).
The video, uploaded to YouTube, shows Juan Gabriel rolling around in bed in front of a person, presumably a man, recording. “Don’t make those ugly faces pa,” the cameraperson says. “Everyone is listening to you, you will not be able to show this,” Gabriel replies.
The video was tweeted by Juan Gabriel’s unverified account on Monday. “Before you look elsewhere, I publish…” he said.
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https://twitter.com/JuanGabriel_/status/448179309195186176
Latin Times reports the video is apparently “blackmail” material, insinuating somebody may have been threatening to publish the video and reveal that Gabriel is gay. Could this be a coming out?
http://youtu.be/KCsFJ7mB6pY
TVC 15
Are you kidding me? JuanGa’s gayness has been the absolutely worst-kept secret for pretty much his entire career. He looks much younger in the video, so this must’ve been around for a long time.
It’s good that he’s just owning it. He’s successful, and respected as an artist so at this point, he really shouldn’t care anymore what people think. More power to him.
Apparatus
Completely lacking context, this video is so creepy. Maybe that’s my fault for watching it in a dark room with headphones on? It’s like something out of a David Lynch film!
tardis
Mexico’s policy in regard to Juan Gabriel seems to be “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Everyone in Mexico knows this man is gay, but Mexicans just overlook that piece of factoid. I think they’d rather not know or even talk about it.
TVC 15
@tardis: It’s like Puertorricans, and Walter Mercado. Seriously.
tricky ricky
oh who hasn’t lounged on a bed then pretended to be a snarling wildcat?
Badabang
Everybody in Mexico knows he is gay, however, people don’t talk about that because he’s just a cultural icon and nobody cares about it (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell). For example, Frida Kahlo is idolized as a cultural icon and her face is on a bill, everybody in Mexico knows she was bisexual, but that fact is overshadowed by the lovely relationship she had with Diego Rivera and her feminist political thougts. But this is a reflection of social attitudes towards homosexuality in Mexico.
In Mexico, homosexuality is a very complicated theme; mayor TV Networks in Mexico (Televisa and TV Azteca) don’t portray homosexuality or transgender, and if they try to portray it, it results in a very useless portrayal through “almost-straight” homosexuals, campy gay men, airheaded drag queens, sexy lesbians and censored gay kisses. Those networks basically control public TV and general population (Mexico has one of the lowest minimum wages in the world and not so many mexicans can afford pay television, so they are “educated” by those corporations and their cheesy telenovelas).
Roman-Catholicism is the dominant religion in Mexico, followed by Atheism/Agnosticism and other Christian beliefs. Homosexuality is respected and tolerated by catholics, however catholic organizations and catholic-base political parties (Partido Acción Nacional) tackle same-sex marriange, legal change of gender and same-sex adoption because they think it will kill traditional values.
Same-sex marriage and “registered partnerships” in Mexico are legal in some states, and recognized all over the country. In the last months of 2013 and the ongoing months of 2014, same-sex marriages have been performed in different cities around the country with legal assistance and “Recursos de Amparo” referencing “NO DISCRIMINATION”. There is no media coverage about this silent same-sex protests, ’cause mainstream and catholic media is only covering PRI’s economical and political reforms.
“Joto” (faggot), “puto” (hustler) and “maricón” (sissy) are meaningless everyday words, becuase they are no longer associated with homosexuality and are used to tag almost everybody. Sexual orientation and gender identity are specified in anti-discrimination laws that apply all over the country, but they are catalogued as “sexual prefereces”, a vague term that makes some people think homosexuality and transgender are personal choices.
Homosexuality and Transgender are widely accepted by younger populations and open-minded social networks users (in the same phenomenon that strikes the late “Millenial Generation” around the world).
petensfo
Shocked! I’m Shocked!!
Puleeeeze. Juan Gabriel is hardly a ‘closetero’ he’s as gay as it gets.
And, Badabang… I never really thought about a distinction between all those words; they’re all just fa**ot to me. I can still remember hearing maricon in regular use on the radio but that’s mostly stopped now. Mariposa is another one, I’d say defined as fairy, right?
Badabang
@petensfo:
Yes, those words are practically the same (etymologicaly different, but esentially the same in use), ’cause they are used now in the same way as “fagg*t”, “p*ssy” or simply “motherf*cker” (Fun fact: these words were specially popular among ska artists and indie music groups around 1998 and 2006 and were used in a similar way to the word “p*ssy” (coward)). These words are no longer used in media, but are still used by general population and not esentially against LGBT community.
The word Mariposa or Mariposón (Fairy) is always used to describe effeminacy in men or M2F transsexuality.
Kangol
Lo que se ve, no se pergunta?
Gurrrrl, are you kidding me?
Pero todo el mundo te ve, chiquita!