It may not be overtly apparent, but I can be a pretty romantic guy. I like to surprise my girlfriend with little gifts, and every now and then I even like to take her out for a nice dinner. And, if the mood strikes, I might even lean over the table and give her a light kiss, expressing my affection. Nothing gratuitous at all. As innocent as holding hands.
Apparently this brazen sign of affection is frowned upon in El Paso, Texas. Well, that is, if you’re gay.
Yesterday, the El Paso Times reported that five gay men were kicked out of Chico's Tacos restaurant when two members of their party embraced with a peck on the lips. The restaurant’s security staff informed the men that their fine establishment didn’t allow “that faggot stuff,” and promptly escorted them off the premises. Well, one member of the group, Carlos Diaz de Leon, called the police to file a report of discrimination.
Surely El Paso’s finest would step in and rectify the situation—or so you’d hope.
Well, apparently not. When the El Paso police showed up, they sided with the restaurant, informing the five men that it’s illegal for two men to kiss in public. According to De Leon, the men were told they could have been cited for “homosexual conduct.” The cops let them off easy by only kicking them out of the restaurant, you see. I mean, they could have been criminally charged for their public display of affection. That is, their gay public display of affection.
Unbeknownst to the El Paso police officer on the scene—a man clearly well versed in the law—the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Texas’s asinine, archaic, despicable sodomy laws unconstitutional six years ago in Lawrence v. Texas. I guess these minor changes—you know, Supreme Court cases—take a while to filter down to local police districts. Even so, Lawrence v. Texas merely upheld the right to sexual privacy—thus it might be reasonable to assume that “homosexual conduct” (whatever that is) might be illegal in public settings in Texas. This is Texas, after all. That might be a reasonable argument, if in fact the city of El Paso hadn’t passed an ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation by businesses open to the public in 2003. Somebody must have forgotten to give the El Paso Police Department the memo.
As the facts stand today, no official report was filed, one of the security guards has contacted a lawyer, and the ACLU of Texas released an official statement condemning the incident. The assistant manager of the restaurant refused to comment, and the El Paso Police Department responded to press inquiries by noting that a more appropriate charge for what happened would “probably be criminal trespass.”
There’s a real tension here between a private business open to the public, state and local anti-discrimination legislation, and individual-level homophobia. Blatant refusal of services based on sexual orientation is supposedly barred in most states, yet private businesses have the supposed right to refuse those very same services for any reason they choose. Yet the business’s openness to the public makes any such refusal suspicious, if not outright discriminatory. The compromise in most states seems to be relatively straightforward: You can’t adopt a policy that explicitly discriminates against individuals based on race, sex, or orientation, and any policy you do adopt must be applied uniformly and equally to individuals regardless of race, sex or orientation.
Still, we can’t exactly legislate against homophobia. Systematic discrimination, yes. But with individual-level prejudices, fears, and disrespect, things get a little fuzzy. A new law helps change public perceptions, sure, but a decree from above doesn’t necessarily change individual-level mentalities on the ground. That's just a reality of prejudice and discrimination. An aggravating and sad reality, to be sure.
But even if we fail to legislate thoughts and beliefs, the least we can do is follow the letter of the law. Apparently the El Paso police missed that memo, too.
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Criminal trespass? Really? So the El Paso police department can acknowledge that a kiss between two men isn't illegal, but being gay in a restaurant may be considered "criminal trespass?" How exactly can that be a more "appropriate" charge? Incidents like this just make me so sad.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard about this before, thanks for posting.
I think it's "more appropriate" because they refused to leave after initially getting kicked out...but that just makes the situation that more infuriating because the police still failed to even acknowledge the inherent discrimination.
ReplyDeleteAside from your keen observation on the tension between discrimination and a private business's right of refusal there is one more interesting tidbit about this story that I think is a more feasible legal case than trying to prove discrimination against the restaurant (I mean they could claim they refused service for non-discriminatory reasons I suppose). It seems that its a major problem that the cops, when "called into action," not only misapplied the law which their department later had to clarify, but also failed to protect the rights of the two men. Regardless of how discrimination law works, aren't the cops suppose to handle a case with vigor and integrity? It seems they showed up and participated in gay bashing and failed to take two men that needed their aid seriously. Is that comparable to someone reporting a crime, say a break-in, and the cops essentially saying "eh, we don't care." The police aren't just failing to apply the letter of law accurately, they are also failing to apply the law period by doubting the validity of the men's accusations.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, Dan. Even if the law is fuzzy (I tried doing a little research on it, and it seems very convoluted and different state-by-state, though much action seemed to occur after the 2003 supreme court case), there is a certain level of dignity and, well, humanity we entrust with our law enforcement. We at least expect them to be unprejudiced in their assessment of the situation.
ReplyDeleteTo the last point, it seems comparable, at least in part, to cops only caring about break-ins in certain neighborhoods, or something to that effect. Or, it's more like enforcing drug possession laws when they come across a group of black or Hispanic kids, as opposed to a group of white kids.
Yea, much better example, choosing when and where to enforce laws. There should be action taken against the police department. Although as odd and somewhat humorous as it might seem, the restaurant owner has a right to be a bigot, but the cops don't have a right to choose who the law applies to
ReplyDeleteI'm from El Paso, Texas. When I saw this on the news yesterday, I was disappointed, ashamed of the policemen's actions, and wished ignorance wasn't portrayed so explicitly, yes, but I was not surprised. What people have failed to point out is the cultural factor that plays into this. Yes, the policemen should have acted with integrity and moral decency, but it was not uncharacteristic of the cultural norms. You see, El Paso's dominating demographic is composed of over 80% Hispanics, which is not surprising considering the fact that EL Paso lies on the border and Juarez, Mexico is literally a 10 minute drive from any given location. The Mexican culture has a very strictly defined hierarchy of male and female roles and behaviors that deem the male figure as the head of the household, the authority figure, the macho man--hence, the term "machismo" used to describe this exaggerated masculine identity. Machismo used to be associated with the respected man who took care of the family, but it has now transformed into this idea of male supremacy. Because of this conditioning of male behavior, anyone who diverts from this persona is heavily ridiculed. Male-male relationships are frowned upon, and these "weaker" men are seen as inferior. Of course, this discrimination is present in many cultures and in mainstream America, but America stresses the ability of the individual, whereas the Mexican culture (and other Latin cultures) is built around family cohesion. Therefore, men have to step up to the plate and take over, and unfortunately, if you don't, then you're a sell out in some senses. A common insult thrown around among men is “maricon,” which translates into “faggot,” which is how the policemen described the men's behaviors. It's a shame that these policemen took it so far. I am not condoning the actions of these policemen, nor am I trying to give them an excuse. The fact that I wasn't surprised by these actions only shows how much these gender roles are perpetuated in the Mexican culture, surfacing a true crisis among these people that needs to be confronted, challenged, and ultimately ousted.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ashley, that is a really informative analysis/observation. Much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteUhhhhh......blaming this on "Mexican culture" is both inaccurate and racist.
ReplyDeleteSo-called "US culture" is quite homophobic as well. Sure, there are strong gendered norms in conservative parts of society. That's true of many societies. But who knew that there was one, overarching "Mexican culture"? That somehow infects so-very-liberal El Paso with its homophobia and sexism?
Blaming this on the "Hispanics" is racist and simply wrong.
Good catch seitzk--I actually wrote the last response from my phone, and only briefly browsed through Ashley's comment.
ReplyDeleteI think the part about a general homophobic culture--or homophobic worldview--among residents in El Paso is entirely believable, and I give Ashley the benefit of the doubt until informed otherwise (I don't know much about the area, admittedly).
That said, you're right to call out Ashley on what appears to be an ecological fallacy: El Paso is generally homophobic, and is also predominantly Hispanic (with apparently Mexican migrants)--therefore Hispanics are homophobic. This is simply logically inconsistent. Homophobia, if present generally in El Paso, would be grounded ecologically, rather than racially with Hispanics.
Homophobia is not concentrated racially, no matter what the inaccurate analyses of Prop 8 and the black "community" might try to argue.
Thanks for putting this in check.
This incident is yet another reminder that a large segment of society still regards gay men and women as second-class citizens - or worse. That is the salient point of my recently released biographical novel, Broken Saint. It is based on my forty-year friendship with a gay man, and chronicles his internal and external struggles as he battles for acceptance (of himself and by others). More information on the book is available at www.eloquentbooks.com/BrokenSaint.html.
ReplyDeleteMark Zamen, author
Just have to mention this Jeremy (in light of these other comments), in a summer class I had with Mike Hart the teacher directly asked him "So Mike, what's with black guys and homophobia?" It was a really awkward ice-breaker. If I could give a direct quote of his response, I cannot remember at all what he said, it would be worthy of a blog post. It was a pretty damn insightful answer (although I think he agreed that his "black male culture" (prob. athlete culture as well) was somewhat homophobic. That was the second best part of that class - the first was the discussion of Jake Long's "schmuck" - not the figurative idea, but the literal thing.
ReplyDeleteIn a more relevant and possibly insightful tidbit - i think the idea of black or hispanic culture as homophobic doesn't come from any racial characteristic about either culture. In my novice opinion, it seems that homophobia in general is more grounded in religion (or, certain people's interpretation of religion). And I think that since black culture, hispanic, mid-west, southern culture etc, tend to be more a religious people than say, someone in the Northeast, that is a factor or source of where bigoted opinions come from. Ironic, probably, that this response is filled with stereotypes as well, but since I am not a "social scientist" I'll play my own ignorance card.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification, Ashley. It's a touchy subject to parse out, particularly when I know little about El Paso, or the groups of folks that live there. I think it's pretty safe to say that you know much more than I do, both about Texas and Mexican culture more generally.
ReplyDeleteAt what level this homophobia is nested--be it at the state level in Texas, the city level, the national level, the cultural level among certain groups--is debatable without adequate data. But, I think we can all agree that what happened was wrong, and should be rectified.
To clarify, I was not blaming this on the Mexican culture nor was I being racist, as that is that would be racist against my own people. There are deeply rooted truths of what the male patriarchy-that I have lived on an everyday basis--perpetuates and propels and to say that the social norms of that culture has nothing to do with it is ignorant. My intentions were not to say that Mexican=Hispanic=Homophobic, period, and I feel that it was blown way out of proportion--reminiscent of the ridicule Sotomayor received. I also did say that homophobia is present in other cultures. I made sure not to disregard that fact. But as a correction, I will say that I cannot speak for every Mexican male's actions and views; I based my post on what I've witnessed, experienced, and read. I am in no way trying to insult anyone, but I stand by what I say before that Mexican gender roles are strictly defined and dictate how a man and woman should live. And on another note, religion plays a part in it, too, but I never delve into religious debates as a personal choice, so I will leave it at that.
ReplyDeleteUn-f'ing-believable.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this; I hadn't heard of it.
On another note, it's incredibly refreshing to hear a hetero guy comment on homophobic thing like this. It's not often that many guys would have the guts to be outwardly pro-GLBT rights.
I don't think that it will be illegal because if it was true you don't see many gays kissing each other in the middle of the street my son asked my that why they were kissing if they were the same gentle. Generic Viagra Buy Viagra
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