For the first time ever, the King of Spain has granted an appearance on the cover of a gay magazine. Though he didn’t pose specifically for RAGAP, a Spanish glossy, he did allow them to use his official portrait on their cover to accompany an article about how attentive he’s been to the LGBT community.
And this isn’t just a boring puff piece — King Felipe VI has been genuinely awesome to queers. Along with his wife (yes, he’s married, to a woman) he organized an LGBT equality conference last year. They specifically brought up trans issues as being of international importance, and made commitments to support visibility and equality across borders.
So, why is he only just getting a magazine cover now? Because he’s about the get an award at FITUR, an LGBT tourism show, next week. Along with Felipe, FITUR is also celebrating Barack Obama (for his support of marriage equality), the magazine El Mundo for its balanced coverage of the gays, and US Ambassador James Costos, one of two hunky gay ambassadors. (The other is Rufus Gifford, Ambassador to Denmark.)
So congrats to everyone, particularly the monarch. This really makes up for that wacky scheme of sending Columbus to find a back door to Asia.
Blackceo
King Felipe could get it. He’s quite handsome and his wife is gorgeous. Glad he is forward thinking on gay issues, but Spain has been ahead of the game on that for awhile. Said it before but again I can’t go on enough about how much I love Barcelona.
jwtraveler
Spain has come a lo-o-o-ong way in 40 years from Franco to Felipe VI.
However, while I can’t hold contemporary Spaniards responsible for the actions of their ancestors, this hardly makes up for centuries of colonization, genocide, slavery, subjugation and exploitation.
Bully2
His Majesty Felipe VI is more than a bit handsome, he’s really quite dashing! How refreshing for a monarch to be so progressive on gay and transgender issues, while say the recently deceased King of Saudi Arabia is being praised for his progressive values by leaders from around the world including those here in the United States, even while he has so-called dissidents imprisoned and publicly whipped 50x a week until the “criminal” blogger gets a full 1,000 lashed. Not to mention that women in Saudi Arabia cannot drive, nor can they leave the house unless accompanied by a male relative.
The difference is startling, and I like it. Perhaps His Majesty should be addressing a joint session of Congress, instead of Benjamin Netanyahu.
DuMaurier
The King has made gestures, some big, some small, some symbolic, in favor of equality for years, even before he ascended the throne. Not to bring in the negative, but also very much in contrast to the comments his mother made about marriage equality when Spain was legalizing it.
jjose712
@jwtraveler: Well, you can aply the same for Netherlands, England and France, in fact most of power countries in Europe.
And we better not bring USA behaviour abroad which is way more recent
gayographer
We have at least 3 gay Ambassadors, including one in Vietnam!
gayographer
Actually – there are 6 — http://www.washingtonblade.com/2014/03/12/gay-u-s-ambassadors-meet-glifaa-members/ Plus now one in Vietnam.
And FITUR is an international tourism conference – it’s not only a gay event.