San Francisco Chronicle (SF); Friday, November 15, 1991
John Otis, Chronicle Foreign Service

Although the Sandinista revolution came to an end last year, the recent party at the Ron Ron may have marked the beginning of Nicaragua's gay revolution. In a country with no gay bars and a population rife with homophobia, the event was sort of a collective "coming out" for Nicaraguan gays.

Scores of guests -- some dressed in sneakers and T-shirts, others in high heels and shoulder pads -- drank rum, danced to Hammer records and witnessed the Ron Ron's first drag show. Yuri Cardenas, who flew in from Miami to lip- synch a set of Latin torch songs, was embraced by a throng of new- found fans who stuffed five-cordoba notes into his dress.

"This is something that lets people know they can do what they want," said Ana Lopez, one of the event's sponsors. "Yuri says he wants to come back every month."

A MACHO SOCIETY

While the rest of Latin America made some concessions to the emerging gay movement during the past decade -- by allowing gay bars and clubs to function -- Nicaragua remained a macho society.

A few gay clubs flourished during the Somoza dictatorship, but they were shut down in 1979 by the Sandinistas, who also targeted gambling casinos and prostitution rings. Many gays supported the ideals of the revolutionary government, but they were largely ignored by the Sandinistas. Some were accused of forming subversive groups.

And the new government of President Violeta Chamorro has a strong puritan streak, says Marcos Guevara, director of an AIDS education project in Managua.

"It's a crime here if you're gay and the police catch you with a condom," said a gay man who would not give his name. "To them, we are parasites and carriers of AIDS."

It was the spread of AIDS, however, that convinced Nicaraguan gays to regroup.

Fourteen Nicaraguans have died of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Officially, 31 people are infected with the HIV virus that causes the disease, but Health Minister Ernesto Salmeron estimates that as many as several hundred Nicaraguans are infected. In neighboring Honduras, more than 1,000 AIDS cases have been confirmed, while about 250 Costa Ricans are reported to carry the virus.

WAVE OF GAY SOLIDARITY

As in the United States, the mobilization against AIDS created a wave of solidarity in Nicaragua's gay community, Guevara said. In June, gays gathered for the first time to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. The riots, which broke out after a police raid at a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn, marked the beginning of the gay liberation movement in the United States.

Last month, Hugo Silva, a Nicaraguan publicist who lives in Miami, made plans with Lopez to open a gay disco in Managua. In a place where gays usually cruise city parks for companionship, Silva and Lopez viewed the club as a public service as well as good business.

"The market (for a gay bar) is virgin," said Lopez, a Cuban resident of Miami. " At least it will keep gays off the streets. If they want to party, they can come to the club."

But the city fathers and the local media were not quite ready for Silva and Lopez, and their idea was promptly deemed scandalous. In fact, a recent story in the Managua newspaper El Nuevo Diario proclaimed: "Gays and witches will bring disaster to Nicaragua."

Part of the problem was logistics. Silva chose a building in the exclusive Las Palmas neighborhood -- just a stone's throw from President Chamorro's well-guarded white bungalow.

Shocked neighbors complained that their children would be corrupted, and the mother of Interior Minister Carlos Hurtado wrote a letter of protest to her son's ministry. Police finally pulled Silva's permit two days before the grand opening, saying the areas was a "security zone."

Ironically, Chamorro has visited Miami in an attempt to persuade well-heeled Nicaraguans like Silva to sink money into their post-revolutionary homeland.

"We returned to see if we could invest and do something for the country, and the government didn't give us much help," Silva said. "They practically attacked us."

But at the last minute, Silva and Lopez found accommodations for the Ron Ron, located a safe distance from the nearest politician, in a working-class neighborhood behind the national baseball stadium.

Although the controversy proved that the old attitudes persist, the opening night crowd declared victory. Even a few policemen at the club were seen cheering for the drag queens.

"We gave the people what they wanted," Silva said. "Now gays feel more liberated. Now they know that there is someone who understands."

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