MEXICO CITY — Christian Chavez, a singer for the Mexican pop group RBD, has announced that he is gay after photographs showing him "marrying" another man showed up on the Internet.
"I don't want to keep on lying and lie to myself because of fear," Chavez said in a statement posted on the group's official Web site Thursday. "I feel bad for not having shared this with all my fans before, as they are the ones that worry and it is because of them that I decided to be honest."
A series of photos that appeared on the Web site www.latingossip.com, also Thursday, showed the 23-year-old star, known for his ever-changing hair colors, with another man with short black hair. The photos, taken in Canada in 2005 according to a message on the site, show the two signing documents, exchanging rings and giving each other a kiss. Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalize gay civil unions in July 2005.
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The photos "show a part of me, a part that I was not prepared to speak of in fear of rejection, of criticism, but especially for my family and its consequences," said Chavez, whose statement appeared in both Spanish and English.
"Although I'm scared and filled with uncertainty I know that I can rely on the support of my fans," he added. "Their love is bigger than all of this. I ask them from the bottom of my heart, not to judge me for being honest and to feel proud of who they are and never make the same mistake I did. Tolerance to diversity!"
RBD, which spun off of Mexico's wildly popular two-year-long soap opera, Rebelde, achieved massive success throughout Latin America and among Spanish speakers in the United States.
In February of last year, three people were crushed to death when thousands of fans surged through security barriers at an autograph session in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Weeks earlier, police in New Jersey and Texas also struggled to contain unexpectedly large turnouts of fans for the RBD band.
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