Mexico: Armando Montano, A 22-Year-Old Out Gay Journalist, Found Dead In Mexico City

MetroWeekly reports:

Armando “Mando” Montano, a 22-year-old news intern for the Associated Press in Mexico City this summer, was found dead early Saturday, June 30, according to an AP report. Montano was gay and a member of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

According to the AP, “Montano’s body was found in the elevator shaft of an apartment building near where he was living in the capital’s Condesa neighborhood. The circumstances of his death were being investigated by Mexican authorities.”

The AP details the outstanding career on which the young journalist already had embarked: 

In December and January, Montano covered the Iowa presidential caucuses as a news intern for The New York Times, and last year worked for several months as an intern covering policy and finance for The Chronicle of Higher Education in Washington, D.C.  

“Mando was a standout young journalist, with a rare passion and exuberance for life and for people,” said Richard Berke, an assistant managing editor at The New York Times. “He accomplished so much and touched so many in a short time, and his potential was truly limitless.”

Tributes to Montano popped up throughout social media on Sunday, including from a friend and fellow young journalist, Aaron Edwards, who is an intern atThe New York Timesthis summer. Edwardswrote, in part, of Montano’s love of journalism — and hope for love:

About one year ago, when Armando Montano and I went to the Chips Quinn Scholars Program, a journalism training program geared to young journalists of minority backgrounds, he started beaming when he found out that because we were Chips Quinn Scholars we would get free access to the Newseum, an interactive journalism museum in Washington, D.C.  

But his excitement stemmed from more than the fact that he could now go and geek out over historic front pages and archival photographs from The New York Times and The Washington Post whenever he wanted. Armando, or “Mando” as many called him for short, was excited because he was adamant and steadfast in the idea that he would marry the love of his life there.  

“I’m going to get married in the Newseum, Aaron. I’m going to get married at the freakin’ Newseum.” he would tell me. Sure, to some it might sound like a joke. But to Mando, this was going to be a beautiful and ironic reality. He would pull some strings, maybe lobby for a few months in D.C., maybe cut some bribes with the executives of the Newseum. (He was kidding on that last one…or was he?)  

Mando was sure that he would stand on the balcony of that building one day and say “I Do” to a man who loved him enough to understand and cherish a guy whose quirky soul led him to want to get married atop a national journalism museum.

Marissa Evans, another young journalist,wrote:

He had just graduated from Grinnell [College] in Iowa and this fall he was shipping off to the University of Barcelona for journalism school. Looking through my Gmail chats with him, I had only started talking to him on August 1, 2011. Our friendship is built upon 72 hilarious chat sessions plus countless Facebook comments/likes and Twitter mentions and retweets.  

We had some of the very best conversations imaginable about journalism, Facebook creeping on cute boys we liked, our hopes, our fears and many freak-outs during the internship offer waiting game. We were each other’s cheerleaders and in fact, he was one of the first few people I told I had accepted The Washington Post’s internship offer for this summer. It was such a wonderful day when he told me he was off to Mexico to report for the AP and also put his Spanish to great use. The caps he used to convey his excitement will forever put a smile on my face.

According to Edwards, Montano’s first AP byline was published long before his internship, in 2010, whenMontano wroteabout same-sex marriages being celebrated at pride in Argentina that summer.

ALSO:Montano had beena Metro Weekly Coverboy back in August 2011. Asked at the time what he was most grateful for, he replied, “To have a lot of supportive people in my life.”

Oh my… And just this saturday June 30th was Pride Weekend in Mexico City. La Condesa, the neighbourhood where he was found, is a very gay friendly place. So, if this turns out to be a Hate Crime, this is gonna shock the LGBT Community here even more. 

My thoughts go out to his family.

Anderson Cooper Officially Comes Out

Via email to Andrew Sullivan: 

Andrew, as you know, the issue you raise is one that I’ve thought about for years. Even though my job puts me in the public eye, I have tried to maintain some level of privacy in my life. Part of that has been for purely personal reasons. I think most people want some privacy for themselves and the people they are close to.

But I’ve also wanted to retain some privacy for professional reasons. Since I started as a reporter in war zones 20 years ago, I’ve often found myself in some very dangerous places. For my safety and the safety of those I work with, I try to blend in as much as possible, and prefer to stick to my job of telling other people’s stories, and not my own. I have found that sometimes the less an interview subject knows about me, the better I can safely and effectively do my job as a journalist.

I’ve always believed that who a reporter votes for, what religion they are, who they love, should not be something they have to discuss publicly. As long as a journalist shows fairness and honesty in his or her work, their private life shouldn’t matter. I’ve stuck to those principles for my entire professional career, even when I’ve been directly asked “the gay question,” which happens occasionally. I did not address my sexual orientation in the memoir I wrote several years ago because it was a book focused on war, disasters, loss and survival. I didn’t set out to write about other aspects of my life.

Recently, however, I’ve begun to consider whether the unintended outcomes of maintaining my privacy outweigh personal and professional principle. It’s become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something - something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true.

I’ve also been reminded recently that while as a society we are moving toward greater inclusion and equality for all people, the tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible. There continue to be far too many incidences of bullying of young people, as well as discrimination and violence against people of all ages, based on their sexual orientation, and I believe there is value in making clear where I stand.

The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.

I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted. I’m not an activist, but I am a human being and I don’t give that up by being a journalist.

Since my early days as a reporter, I have worked hard to accurately and fairly portray gay and lesbian people in the media - and to fairly and accurately portray those who for whatever reason disapprove of them. It is not part of my job to push an agenda, but rather to be relentlessly honest in everything I see, say and do. I’ve never wanted to be any kind of reporter other than a good one, and I do not desire to promote any cause other than the truth.

Being a journalist, traveling to remote places, trying to understand people from all walks of life, telling their stories, has been the greatest joy of my professional career, and I hope to continue doing it for a long time to come. But while I feel very blessed to have had so many opportunities as a journalist, I am also blessed far beyond having a great career.

I love, and I am loved.

In my opinion, the ability to love another person is one of God’s greatest gifts, and I thank God every day for enabling me to give and share love with the people in my life. I appreciate your asking me to weigh in on this, and I would be happy for you to share my thoughts with your readers. I still consider myself a reserved person and I hope this doesn’t mean an end to a small amount of personal space. But I do think visibility is important, more important than preserving my reporter’s shield of privacy.

Thomas Roberts Has a Date Set For His Wedding

Remembering Christopher Hitchens: His Immortal Rejoinders

(Via Vanity Fair)

David Pakman Asks “Moron Of The Week” Inductee Bryan Fischer: Are ANY Of The GOP Candidates Anti-Gay Enough?

I LOVE this sexy Pakman son of a gun! The way he gets this bigots on his show over and over again, and still making fun of them in such a smart & eloquent way by  formulating obvious questions is juts fun to watch. 

Remembering Christopher Hitchens: BBC Newsnight Special

Remembering Christopher Hitchens

In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011

Vanity Fair’s Juli Weiner writes:

Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the age of 62. Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the spring of 2010, just after the publication of his memoir, Hitch-22, and began chemotherapy soon after. His matchless prose has appeared in Vanity Fair since 1992, when he was named contributing editor.
“Cancer victimhood contains a permanent temptation to be self-centered and even solipsistic,” Hitchens wrote nearly a year ago in Vanity Fair, but his own final labors were anything but: in the last 12 months, he produced for this magazine a piece on U.S.-Pakistani relations in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death, a portrait of Joan Didion, an essay on the Private Eye retrospective at the Victoria and Albert Museum, a prediction about the future of democracy in Egypt, a meditation on the legacy of progressivism in Wisconsin, and a series of frank, graceful, and exquisitely written essays in which he chronicled the physical and spiritual effects of his disease. At the end, Hitchens was more engaged, relentless, hilarious, observant, and intelligent than just about everyone else—just as he had been for the last four decades.
“My chief consolation in this year of living dyingly has been the presence of friends,” he wrote in the June 2011 issue. He died in their presence, too, at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. May his 62 years of living, well, so livingly console the many of us who will miss him dearly.

When the push notification with this terrible news came on on my device, I just felt breathless. I’m taking this as a personal loss. I can count with just one hand the names of the people who have made a significant influence in my life. Christopher Hitchens is one of them. As a Mexican Atheist, who grew up in a very Catholic-Conservative environment I surely had no idea I could ever detached myself from all of that nor that there would me others like me until I came across with Hitchens’ work, same that will continue to enlighten future generations, cause after all, if he was something to many that would be a mind emancipator.

British by right, American by choice, his ideals were never corrupted.His graceful take on his disease, written down on different outlets (from Vanity Fair to Slate) was simply always brave & brutally honest. I just hope for myself to have the same strength and coherence to go through whatever I come across in my life.

His take on religion, politics, economics and societal issues would never disappoint. He was for sure the greatest thinker & journalist of his time.

His passing is being gracefully mentioned by notorious sites & people (apart from the piece by Vanity Fair), from Slate, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, the BBC, amongst others.

He died on December 15th, of complications of pneumonia, a complication of esophageal cancer. He was 62.

New Zealand: Gay Editor/Journalist, Phillip Alexander Cottrell, Dies After Beating 

Stuff reports:

Police launched a murder investigation last night after Radio New Zealand bulletins editor Phillip Alexander Cottrell, 43, died in Wellington Hospital yesterday.
Cottrell, who suffered a condition that made his bones brittle, was beaten in Boulcott St minutes after he left work on The Terrace about 5.30am on Saturday. His life support was disconnected yesterday.
Detective Senior Sergeant Scott Miller this afternoon said there was an 11-minute window in which the attack could have taken place.
Cottrell left work at 5.30am and was spotted by a taxi driver at 5.41pm. Police believe the taxi driver may have just missed seeing the assault take place.
Cottrell was reportedly openly gay, though police did not think the attack was related to his sexuality and that would not be a focus for their investigations.
“We can not see any reason for Mr Cottrell to be involved in an altercation … He took that same route down Boulcott Street most days,” Miller said.
Cottrell was believed to be going to his home in central Wellington. His injuries indicate that a weapon might have been used, though police did not find one at the scene.
Miller said the nature of the injuries, which he described as “very severe”, indicated that Mr Cottrell saw the attacker or attackers approaching.
He said the injuries were serious enough that Mr Cottrell’s degenerative bone disease could not have been solely responsible for his death.
Police are compiling extensive CCTV inquiries through all businesses in the immediate area. At this time police do not know how many attackers were involved.
They have not yet located Cottrell’s brown men’s wallet and this would be part of their search.
Millar said police had spoken to a lot of witnesses but were still appealing for anyone else in the Gilmer Terrace and Boulcott Street area between 5.30am and 5.45am on Saturday to come forward.
Police were also contacting businesses in the area to talk to staff who may have been starting or finishing work at the time of the attack.
The autopsy was under way this afternoon.
Millar also expressed sympathy to Cottrell’s family and RNZ colleagues.
“Obviously the family are extremely devastated and have had to make decisions. It’s not an easy time.”
“It is a busy time of year just before Christmas and there are a lot of people are out, but this is an assault that couldn’t be predicted. This is unpredictable and unprovoked,” Millar said earlier today.
The death comes as monthly police statistics show serious assaults in Wellington have increased by 43 per cent in the past year.
Acting Wellington area commander Detective Inspector Steve Vaughan said he still believed the city to be safe despite the attacks.
“Random attacks are very very difficult for police to prevent, that is why the message is for everyone to control their own safety.
When you have people, trouble makers, miscreants coming into town…it is too difficult to police. I’m certainly concerned about any violence but it certainly is the exception not the norm. We have a very very safe city.”

Debate: Christopher Hitchens VS Barry Brummett

Christopher Hitchens: The Three New Commandments 

Here Christopher Hitchens, a hero of mine and mind emancipator, gives a lecture at Royal Ontario Museum entitled “The Three New Commandments” in conjunction with the exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

 Enjoy! 

The Intelligence² Debate - Christopher Hitchens On The Catholic Church

One of Hitchens’ best rants, here he is talking about the Church’s positions on women’s rights, homosexuality, the AIDS epidemic and about what the Church should apologized for. And he does it in front of Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Catholic MP Ann Widdecombe.

(Via The Richard Dawkins Foundation)

Christopher Hitchens: Michele Bachman, A Small-Town, Small-Minded Isolationist 

Via Slate:

That was actually three dripping custard pies, rather than just the one, with which Rep. Michele Bachmann assailed her own face by bragging to Fox News about her small-town Iowa roots. Having hymned the incomparable Dairy Queen and Wonder Bread facilities boasted by the sturdy small town of her girlhood, she went on to claim that “John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa,” adding, “That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.”John Wayne was from Winterset, Iowa, which can be found about 150 miles to the southwest of Waterloo. It was his namesake John Wayne Gacy, serial rapist and killer of 33 teenage boys and young men, whospent time in Waterloo. (I long ago pointed out that having “John Wayne” in your lineup of given names is a bad predictor: John Wayne Bobbitt was reduced by an infuriated partner to hunting in the weeds for his abruptly severed penis.)Traditionally, the phrase “to meet your Waterloo” means to encounter a final and unarguable defeat. Perhaps it’s too early to say that, but really. In one stroke, Bachmann shows that she can’t tell one folksy Iowa town from another. Then she compounds the error by confusing a folk hero with a villain and psycho. Finally, and having never done or said anything that would stand a second’s comparison to the spirit of The Duke (whatever you may think of him), she tries to borrow the mantle of a husky gunfighter in the very week that she is pathetically advocating that we leave Col. Qaddafi alone. The old parochialism meets the not-so-new isolationism. A very shaky start…

… Meanwhile, Qaddafi’s sick intransigence in Libya threatens the local population, the evolving neighboring countries of Tunisia and Egypt, and—by a potential crisis of emigration and refugees—the stability of Europe’s southern frontiers. This is why we have had such frank appeals, from Europe as well as from the Arab League, to contribute more to what is in any case ineluctable—a post-Qaddafi future. For Bachmann to choose this moment to say that the loony of Libya poses no threat is to disqualify herself from any consideration for high office. She evidently knows nothing about the four decades of dictatorship and depredation that have led up to this. But then, when you come to notice it, she doesn’t seem to know her Iowan derrière from an artesian well, either.

Eloquent as always. Hitchens points out something I’ve been asking myself for a while now: Why do people consider that being from a small town is a qualifier to govern, specially at the federal level in any western country. 

Christopher Hitchens VS William Lane Craig - Does God Exist?

Spare a couple of worthy hours to watch this great debate.

Christopher Hitchens: Religion Is Insanity