A Peruvian politician has announced he is gay — a first in one of Latin America’s most conservative countries. He is Carlos Bruce, a 57-year-old member of congress and former minister and also one of the main drivers of debate on civil unions for same-sex couples in Peru. “Yes, I am gay and proud to belong to a group of people who are so valuable to Peru,” Bruce said in an interview over the weekend with the newspaper El Comercio. Peru’s gay and lesbian community has been more assertive in recent years in defending its rights, but it faces an uphill battle in a deeply conservative society where homosexuality is frowned upon.
