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March 26, 2008
Mayors Office Trying to Relocate Gay Clubs?
An article at pridesource.com reports that the Guadalajara mayor's office is trying to relocate the many gay bars that are in the historic downtown area before the Pan American Games in 2011. The claim is backed up in an article from the University of Guadalajara's online Gaceta Universitaria.
Their source is Carlos Oceguera, the owner of a couple of clubs in downtown Guadalajara. In the pridesource.com article, he states:
"They claim that our lifestyle is offensive to the clean conscience of the citizens of Guadalajara and that we have to sacrifice our personal economic interests to the good citizens of Guadalajara," Oceguera said. "In order for us to have a presentable face to visitors, homosexuals have to go out of the center."
This is going to be a big deal in the city with the greatest number of gays per-capita in the country, no matter how they try to pass it off as something other than discrimination against gays. In the article in the Gaceta Universitaria, the director de padrón y licencias is quoted as saying in an interview on University of Guadalajara Radio:
"Mis acciones o las acciones que ha emprendido el presidente municipal para regular las condiciones de convivencia en el centro de la ciudad, no son un acto de homofobia."
...or in English:
"My actions or the actions that the municipal president has undertaken to regulate the conditions of coexistence in the city center, are not an act of homophobia."
Huh. It's interesting that 'coexistence' in this case requires one group of people to clear out.
We'll see if the rule they're using to try to "clean up" the downtown is equally applied to the many bars and clubs in the area that are not specifically gay. If not, they're going to have a hard time justifying how it is not an act of homophobia.
Posted by crispy at March 26, 2008 06:43 PM
Comments
Just where are they proposing to move all the bars? To the suburban shopping malls? To one stripcenter on the road to P.V.? To the D.F.? Are they creating a gay center for Guadalajara to rival West Hollywood or San Francisco's Castro district or Miami's South Beach? Is it time to recall the city's mayor and denounce any plans to strip the center of the culture it has? What would go there? WalMarts? 7-11s? Straight piano bars with no sense of melody?
Posted by: brett at March 31, 2008 07:04 PM