Political cartoon pays tribute to 12-year-old boy who took on 11k homophobes
A political cartoonist has captured, and paid tribute to the moment a 12-year-old boy took on an 11,000 strong crowd of homophobes, single handedly.
Tens of thousands of people tool to the streets of Mexico this weekend to protest against a proposed same-sex marriage law.
The proposal was made by President Enrique Pena Nieto to introduce same-sex marriage in the largely conservative country.
Officials estimated that around 11,000 took to the streets of one city, Celaya, to protest against the law, and a 12-year-old boy leaped out in front of the march, in an attempt to stop it from proceeding.
The image was captured by Manuel Rodriguez who said: “At first I thought the child was only playing.”
But the anonymous boy said he has a gay uncle and wanted to do something about the march.
Julio Salgado, a political cartoonist, has now paid tribute to the boy.
Being Mexican and queer myself, when I saw that image I felt that I needed to honor that image by recreating it and putting in my own twist,” he said. “I wanted to pay homage to that moment.”
The image was posted on Facebook by CultureStrike this week.
The demonstrations were organised by the National Front for the Family, a group of organisations and religious groups opposed to same-sex marriage.
The boy has since been compared to the infamous Tank Man – the single unknown protestor who stood in the path of numerous tanks the morning after the Chinese military suppressed activists at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
As well as organising the demonstrations – which drew larger crowds than expected – the National Front for the Family also gathered over 100,000 signatures against the proposal.
Mexico has seen a string of court battles over same-sex marriage, with Mexico’s Supreme Court last year ruling that it was unconstitutional for states to ban LGBT couples from marrying.
While same-sex marriage is not legal across the country, several states and Mexico City currently have laws allowing same-sex couples to marry.
The states of Coahuila, Quintana Roo, Jalisco, Nayarit, Chihuahua, Chiapas and Sonora have already legalised it but the other 30 states currently do not allow same-sex couples to marry.
