New gay luchador makes debut at Dallas Pride parade

by Marisa Treviño of Latina Lista

For those who are closet Lucha Libre fans, a new luchador appeared on the Dallas scene Sunday during the annual Dallas Gay parade — Santo Gay! According to his blog (http://sisoyglbt.blog.com/), he’s the first gay Lucha Libre luchador announcer (say that fast five times). Because it just so happened that the Gay parade fell on Sept. 16, Mexico’s Independence Day, Santo Gay reports that in honor of the day he played the song “El Rancho Grande” over the sound system between parade entries. He said people danced and even let loose some gritos (loose translation: whooped it up).

Though everyone appreciated Santo Gay’s nod to the special day for Latinos of Mexican heritage, no one appreciated it more than the gay Latino population. In fact, there’s a pretty healthy subculture in Dallas of Latino/a gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT). An interesting point is that many in this community are immigrants.

It used to be an open secret that within this community, Latino members, some of whom probably feel doubly persecuted these days, have a thriving entertainment business. It seems some transvestite and transsexual entertainers routinely perform at area taquerias and Mexican restaurants for straight audiences. We know this now courtesy of today’s posting at Unfair Park (http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2007/09/fuera_del_closet_in_cedar_spri.php) that cites Al Día reporter, Sergio Chapa’s work and documentary uncovering this highly interesting angle to the immigration issue.