By REBECCA ARMENDARIZ, Washington Blade
Aug 14 2008, 9:57 AM |
|  | 
As a frequent traveler to South America, Jeff Sunner was accustomed to breathtaking scenery and friendly locals.
But when the 39-year-old Phoenix man and his boyfriend vacationed in Ecuador last month, they had a very different experience.
Sunner said the couple had gone to eat and drink at a gay bar July 20 before he decided to continue on alone and asked a security guard for directions to another bar.
Although there are multiple gay bars in the touristy area of Quito where the couple stayed, the establishments are not well advertised. And while policemen line the streets of Ecuador, Sunner said it’s “very hard to distinguish who has what authority.”
Sunner said the directions he received were incorrect, so he turned around, when three men approached him.
"It happened 20 feet from the guard I asked for directions," he said.
Sunner said the men choked him, cutting off his air supply and making him fade in and out of consciousness. Sunner noted that as he lost control of his bowels, the men tried to steal his clothing and repeatedly called him "maricon," an anti-gay epithet.
The security guard Sunner encountered earlier watched and laughed, he said, until the attack stopped and the men left.
Sunner said he eventually found another security guard and was told that all guards have assigned jurisdictions and aren't obligated to help people outside of their own areas.
The police wouldn't file a report, Sunner said, and told him that laws say bruises or marks have to last for three days or longer before a person can file charges.
The only formal recognition of the attack came from a regional newspaper, Últimas Noticias, which printed an interview with Sunner along with its report of the assault.
Sunner, who said the men attacked him because he is gay, is now advising other gay travelers to avoid Ecuador.
"In a machismo society like that,” he said, “you're not going to laugh at another man being beat up right by you.”
The U.S. State Department, which details the dangers that Americans can face when traveling to foreign countries, notes the district where Sunner was attacked is dangerous, but makes no mention of bias crimes.
Sunner said he received an apology from Efraín Soria, a program coordinator at Fundacion Ecuatoriana Equidad, an Ecuadorian gay rights organization.
In an e-mail to Sunner, Soria asked him not to judge the entire country by this one incident.
Homosexuality has been legal in Ecuador since 1997, but there is no legal recognition of same-sex couples. Ecuador has anti-discrimination laws that include sexual orientation, according to the International Lesbian & Gay Association.
Rafael Correa, the country’s left-wing president, has proposed a new constitution for the country that would recognize same-sex couples and bestow basic rights, said Andrés Duque, an activist and blogger who focuses on gay rights in Latin America.
Duque said that although the government has worked toward increased acceptance of gays and lesbians, the country’s people don’t always reflect those efforts.
"Not that [the attack on Sunner] is excusable,” Duque said, “but I think that sometimes, culturally, you can't translate the experience of living in the U.S. as openly gay to visiting a country that is just recently dealing with openness in terms of LGBT issues and expect it to be the same.”
|
