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OTTAWA — NDP leadership hopeful Heather McPherson ruffled some feathers on Sunday evening when she appeared to shoehorn progressive virtue signalling into a social media post addressing the sprialling cartel violence in the Mexican tourist destination of Puerto Vallarta.
“ Many Canadians, especially members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, are in Puerto Vallarta, where violence has quickly escalated. A shelter-in-place order is in effect,” wrote McPherson, who’s also an MP for Edmonton, linking the post to a webpage outlining federal travel advisories for Mexico.
McPherson’s post racked up nearly 5,000 replies by Monday morning, most appearing to be critical of her for putting LGBT Canadians ahead of all Canadian travellers caught in the chaos.
“Honestly, just stop. ‘Many Canadians’ is perfectly adequate,” wrote one critic .
Violence erupted in Puerto Vallarta and the surrounding state of Jalisco after Jalisco-based drug lord Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes was killed in a military raid on Sunday morning. Travellers in the area, including nearly 5,000 Canadians , are being advised to stay where they are amid reports of criminal gangs setting up roadblocks and setting fire to vehicles across the state.
Puerto Vallarta is notably a major global LGBT destination, with economic activity generated by LGBT travellers making up some 40 per cent of its tourism GDP in 2023 . This translates to a whopping $17 billion pesos for the local economy, roughly the equivalent of $1.3 billion Canadian.
Here’s what you need to know about Puerto Vallarta’s connection to the LGBT community.
How did Puerto Vallarta become the ‘gay capital of Mexico’?
Puerto Vallarta first crossed the radar of LGBT travellers in the early 1960s, when American tabloids reported on the clandestine visits of community ally Elizabeth Taylor and paramour Richard Burton to the then quiet coastal fishing village. LGBT tourists and expats would ultimately form a community in an inner-city neighbourhood known as the “Romantic Zone,” near where Taylor owned a home.
The city’s status as the “ gay capital of Mexico ” was cemented in the early 1990s when a police raid of a local gay bar kicked off a civil rights push similar to the Stonewall uprising in New York City’s Greenwich Village.
Edmontonian Murray Billet, who is gay, told National Post that he started vacationing in Puerto Vallarta in the mid-1990s.
“I had some friends that had been down, and they suggested to me, all those years ago, that it would be a wonderful little place,” said Billet.
The Trump bump
Doug Kerr, the executive director of gay rights NGO Dignity Network Canada, says that LGBT Canadians, like other Canadian travellers, are looking to warm-weather destinations outside of the United States amid the provocations of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Kerr said the LGBT-friendly Puerto Vallarta looks especially good next to some of the balmy red states that have flirted with Trumpian culture-war politics.
“From what I’ve seen, the city is an increasingly popular destination for gay Canadians, many of whom are opting to take their vacation time there as opposed to places like Florida,” said Kerr.
Kerr said “thousands and thousands” of LGBT Canadians spend at least part of the year in Puerto Vallarta.
Are cartels targeting the LGBT community?
There’s no evidence so far that cartels are targeting either LGBT tourists or LGBT-owned businesses in the Romantic Zone.
Billet, who is currently sheltering in place at his residence in Puerto Vallarta, says that, from what he’s hearing, the cartels are leaving independent “mom and pop shops” alone.
“There certainly haven’t been any targeted incidents,” said Billet. “The queer community is very much amalgamated with the rest of the city and a part of the city’s makeup.”
National Post, with files from the Canadian Press
rmohamed@postmedia.com
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