Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 14:50:27 -0800 (PST)
From: Rex Wockner <rwockner@netcom.com>
Subject: MONTERREY GAYS FIGHT BACK 


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         * Copyright (c) 1995 Rex Wockner and affiliates. *
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  * Accents: e in Mexico, i in Garcia, u in Jesus, o in Socrates, * 
  * o in Leon.                                                    *
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                    MONTERREY GAYS FIGHT BACK
                         by Rex Wockner

	Gays in Monterrey, Mexico, are not taking the repression of the
city's new National Action Party (PAN) government sitting down.

	Monterrey, pop. 4 million, is located 146 miles south of
Laredo, Texas, and is one of Mexico's most-industrialized and
cosmopolitan cities. PAN is the most conservative of Mexico's three
main political parties.

	In response to continuing police aggression, gays have launched
the city's first gay organization, began publishing a newspaper
("Montegay") and opened three new bars to replace the four police
closed.

	The police also have been visiting outdoor cruising areas and
extorting up to $900 each from gays under threat of informing their
families of their sexuality and publishing their names in
newspapers. The cops also have taken rings, neck chains, watches and
car stereos, and even accompanied gays to their homes or automated-
teller machines to get money.

	"The PAN party simply does not have any sympathy for gay
people. Even the local newspapers have talked about it," said a
Monterrey gay man who is monitoring the crackdown and corresponds
with this reporter over the Internet.

	"But the situation is changing," he wrote. "Two bars and a
dance club have opened, and they arm themselves with all the legal
papers and comply with every single detail of state law to stay
open. Soon there will be more bars.

	"The government will have to learn to accept gays, as gays will
have to accept the new government, even with its closed-minded
attitude."

	The correspondent said that prior to new Mayor Jesus Hinojosa
Tijerina's anti-gay campaign, one of Monterrey's now-closed discos
attracted 2,000 men on weekends.
	
	"You had to see it on Saturday nights or Fridays," he said. "It
was packed!"

	Monterrey gays continue to request faxed protest letters to
Nuevo Leon Governor Socrates Rizo Garcia at 011-52-8-343-4234, Mayor
Jesus Hinojosa Tijerina at 011-52-8-345-0154, and the state Human
Rights Commission (Attention: Dr. Lorenzo de Anda y Anda) at 011-52-
8-344-9199.

                         == END ==