The homophobia displayed by Esteban Arce a few days ago motivated some Twitter users to officially protest against the TV host, demanding that Televisa take him off the air. The National Council to Prevent Discrimination (CONPRED) is now in charge of this issue, based on 18 e-mails sent to that governmental agency, in particular the one signed by Gabriel Gutiérrez García, elected by CONAPRED as embassador against discrimination.
Gutiérrez García has been following Arce closely: in the last Encuentro de Diversidad Sexual in Oaxtepec, Morelos he denounced the “Matutino Express” as a space where words such as puñal (faggot) or depravado (degenerate) were used to talk about gay men. The issue is still in process, so we don’t know how it will be solved yet.
Some people in Facebook have expressed that the whole issue will give Arce higher ratings, instead of helping the GLBT community to defend our rights. Well, we all know how powerful language can be, and how it can drive people to commit unmentionable atrocities.
Meanwhile, Arce’s reaction has been to deny that he is homophobic: “I never imagined that there would be such controversy, and I don’t care, here [in his program] I say what I think, and I don’t take the time to see if people agree or not.” “I’m not homophobic, I have my opinion… I respect human life, to young guys and the others (homosexuals) do as you want, I don’t care. But yes, what is natural is man-woman, nothing else”.
Please, someone help this guy!