Anthropologist Joseph M. Carrier suggests that, unlike the U.S., in Mexico, a man's masculine gender and heterosexual identity are not threatened by a homosexual act as long as he plays the
inserter's role. The terms used to refer to homosexual Mexican men are generally coded with gendered meaning drawn from the
inferior position of women in patriarchal Mexican society. The most benign of the contemptuous terms is
maricón, a label that highlights the non-conforming gender attributes of the (feminine) homosexual man, equivalent to
sissy or
fairy in
American English. However, to most Mexicans (gay or straight), the term maricón is highly offensive and is more an equivalent to the Canadian or American term "faggot". Terms such as
joto or
puto, on the other hand, speak to the
passive sexual role taken by these men rather than merely their gender attributes, according to Carrier. Carrier also suggests that homosexuality is rigidly circumscribed by the prominent role the family plays in structuring homosexual activity. In Mexico, the traditional family remains a crucial institution that defines both gender and
sexual relations between men and women. The producer,
Gustavo Santaolalla, in some statements to the magazine
Retila, stated that the word "puto" had not been used in the sense of "gay" but in the sense of "coward" or "loser", which is also used in Mexico. According to the First National Poll on Discrimination (2005) in Mexico which was carried out by the CONAPRED, 48% of the Mexican people interviewed indicated that they would not permit a homosexual to live in their house. 95% of the homosexuals interviewed indicated that in Mexico there is discrimination against them; four out of ten declared they were victim of acts of exclusion; more than half said they felt rejected; and six out of ten felt their worst enemy was
society. This is in part for economic reasons. Low incomes and scarce housing keep many living with their parents, as does the fact that in the absence of a
government social welfare system, the family is the primary bulwark of social security. Even wealthy Mexican homosexuals often continue to live at home, acquiring a separate lodging as a meeting place for their sexual partners.
Effeminacy and
cross-dressing are serious violations of the masculine ideal. But the greatest transgression is for a man to assume the
sexual role of a woman in intercourse. The
man who penetrates another man remains masculine. The
man who is penetrated loses his masculinity and incurs by far the greater social stigma. The focus on
masculinity has serious consequences. It means that most Mexican gay or bisexual males, regardless of the
sexual roles they assume in private, are at pains to project a manly image in public. The relative few who are unable to do so are therefore highly exposed and subject to ridicule and
harassment, to say nothing of discrimination in employment. It also means that
transvestites are subject to hatred, harassment, and police abuse. Police abuse stems not only from popular prejudice but also from the fact that
street prostitution is illegal in certain jurisdictions such as Mexico City. Mexican police, whose wages tend to be very low, are notorious for corruption, extorting money from citizens. Because
machismo is by definition male-oriented, and is premised on male dominance in relations between the sexes, lesbian relationships are generally perceived as far less threatening to society. That is, to the extent that they are perceived at all, because to a great degree they remain invisible in a cultural context that gives little recognition to
female sexuality in the first place. {{quotation That helps explain the view often expressed among Mexican men that lesbians are just women who have not experienced "real" sex with a "real" man. In that sense, lesbians suffer much the same treatment as other women in a society that so exalts the masculine over the feminine.
Violence against LGBTQ people Homophobia is very widespread in Mexican society. Statisticians show that between 2002 and 2007 alone, 1,000 people have been murdered in
homophobic crimes, as the
Chamber of Deputies revealed in May 2007, making Mexico the county with the second-highest rate of homophobic crimes in the world (after Brazil). In a journalistic study by
Fernando del Collado, titled
Homofobia, odio, crimen y justicia (
Homophobia, Hate, Crime, and Justice), there were discussed 400 dead between 1995 and 2005, that is to say, some three murders a month. The City Commission Against Homophobic Hate Crimes calculates that only one in four crimes is reported. From January to August 2009, 40 gay people were murdered in
Michoacán alone, nearly all of them in the
Tierra Caliente area. The great majority are against gay men; from 1995 to 2004, "only" sixteen women had been murdered. The crimes are often ignored or investigated with little interest by the police forces, who give impunity to the criminal in 98% of cases.
Roman Catholic Church Reinforcing attitudes toward homosexuality in
Mexican culture is the stance of the
Roman Catholic Church. Mexico City's
Cardinal Norberto Rivera denounces "euphemisms" that contribute to "moral disorientation". "The arguments expressed by those who sympathize with this current that favors sexual
libertinism, often appear under humanist banners, although at root they manifest materialist ideologies that deny the transcendent nature of the human person, as well as the supernatural vocation of the individual." The complementary union of man and woman, he says, is the only relationship capable of generating "true conjugal love."
Anti-gay rhetoric is still acceptable in parts of the country where the influence of the Catholic Church is strongest. The new
Catechism of the Catholic Church describes homosexual acts as a "grave
depravity" and "intrinsically disordered". It states that lesbian and gay relationships are "
contrary to natural law [...] they do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved." Recognizing that "the number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible", it specifies that "they must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity," avoiding "every sign of unjust discrimination." Yet it mandates that "homosexual persons are called to
chastity." ==Indigenous LGBTQ people==