Life
RBD’s Christian Chavez on being outed in 2007, not wanting to seem “too gay,” & reclaiming his pride
A post shared by Christian Chávez (@christianchavezreal)Back in 2007, Christian Chavez was enjoying a wave of success on the Mexican telenovela Rebelde and the pop group RBD when he made the bold step of coming out of the closet.It was a huge milestone for queer representation in the Latin community, but Chavez’s brave move was initially motivated by more sinister machinations.Behind the scenes, photos of Chavez were being used to blackmail the show’s network Televisa, with perpetrators threatening to out him – and potentially jeopardize the program and the music group’s future – if they were not paid to keep their silence. You don’t realize the rarity of queer Latinx artists until you try to name five.Prior to joining the series, Chavez secretly married a man in Canada and their private wedding photos were now being used against him.