Gay kiss in pool causes stir in Mexico

By Greg Brosnan

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A gay kiss in a swimming pool,
which two men say got them thrown out of a luxury hotel, has
caused a stir in traditionally macho Mexico, where open
displays of homosexuality are frowned upon.

Gerardo Eliud and his partner, Samir Habdu, told police in
Los Cabos, a plush beach resort city popular with U.S.
tourists, that security guards beat them up and threw them into
the street with their luggage after spotting them kissing in
the hotel pool in December.

But when leftist deputies demanded an investigation into
the incident in Congress this week, they were angrily shouted
down by legislators from other parties who argued the subject
was unfit for discussion in the chamber.

The ruckus highlights the discomfort about homosexuality in
this predominantly Catholic country, despite recent openness
toward gays in some areas.

“It is a question of profound conservatism, intolerance and
backwardness,” Party of the Democratic Revolution deputy Inti
Munoz said of the deputies’ reaction.

Congress voted that the issue was not urgent and shelved it
in a commission for analysis.

Eliud, a 27-year-old public relations officer who lives
with 24-year-old air steward Habdu in Mexico City, said he and
his partner only shared a discreet peck.

“It was a two-second kiss, we didn’t even touch lips,” he
said, adding that the couple chose the Hotel Presidente
InterContinental because of the stated gay-friendly policy of
its parent company.

A spokesman for the hotel said it had documents and witness
statements proving the couple’s version of the events was
false.

He insisted the hotel was gay-friendly and said the pair
was thrown out for “making inappropriate advances at other
guests.”

The hotel in Los Cabos, a magnet for foreign yachters and
golfers, pays British group InterContinental Hotels Group Plc,
to use its brand.

Eliud said that when asked why they had thrown them out,
two security guards told them: “We don’t like faggots.”

He said he and his partner, who are both Mexican, filed a
criminal complaint against the hotel for assault and for
stealing some of their belongings, and that they had approached
Mexico’s human rights commission.

“This can happen to anyone,” said Eliud. “Many people keep
quiet or don’t say anything for fear of being in the press. We
want this not to happen to anyone else, and we want justice to
be done.”

In recent years it has become common to see same-sex
couples holding hands in Mexico City’s trendiest neighborhoods,
but it is unusual for gay and lesbian couples to publicly show
affection in smaller cities, and almost unheard of in rural
Mexico.

The issue also highlights how international companies face
cultural barriers to promoting gay tourism in countries unused
to seeing same-sex couples in public.