BIG BROTHER: PORTUGAL TODAY, 1994

The following article was published in issue No. 6 of the Parisian magazine Gaie France, and edited and apparently translated into English and German by Peter de Jong for Koinos magazine, issue 4, Amsterdam, 1994, pp. 20-22. The three black-and-white photos were part of the original Koinos article.

If there is one country in which appearances are becoming more and more deceptive, it is Portugal. Though Portugal’s appearances are still appealing enough – it’s inhabitants are still communicative and its youngsters still radiate a natural sensuality - one can see a turnaround for those who go there in search of pleasurable contacts.

The days are long past when boys, who had managed to escape the hovels that lacked the conveniences of neighbourhoods such as Chelas and Musgueira, lived in the streets in informal gangs, always on the look out for a hospitable welcome. Just as distant are the days when those boys would gather in front of the Chic-Choc, that famous drugstore at the Avenida where the slot machines made up an easy pretence for their presence... while they hung out there to “explore”, e.a. to find some American or a Swiss who would invite them and give them some pocket money in return for some caresses and pictures from the most daring. There were a few boys who were rather quick to pull their knives or blackmailed their clients, and a lot more would leave the room with some discretely acquired trifle in their pockets, but in general those meetings took place without any scandals.

Even now, out of the 20,000 cases that get into the hands of the Portuguese Justice every year, only eight are related to homosexuality with minors. But the police have become very alert, and don’t hesitate to pull in both the “baron” (the adult, called “camon” if he is a foreigner) and the loose boy in a swift action. Especially the police at the Feira Popular – Lisbon’s largest fair - are quite visible everywhere, and get a great deal of help from some of the showmen. As a rule some people will be taken into custody, upon which it happens that the boy is hit or downright beaten up.

By government order, a special squad has been formed as part of the judicial police. But moreover, it looks as if the present morals law, which dates from 1982, is being enforced more and more. This law provides for a sentence with a maximum of eight years imprisonment if the partner is younger than 14. In the spring of 1992, two Englishmen who hadn’t taken this in account suffered the consequences. The maximum sentence goes up to ten years in case of rape, or acts placed on the same footing.

Between the ages of 14 and 16, the sentence depends on whether it involves a girl (maximum of one year) or a boy (maximum of three years). At the age of 16 the youngster becomes “imputavel”: which means that he is responsible for his acts. This statute isn’t used as a cover for hypocrisy as in some countries, where judges are known to sentence people who have had relationships with 15 to 18-year-olds on the pretext of the “corruption of minors”.

A mere relationship isn’t necessarily a cause for alarm though. Furthermore, regardless of the age of the participants, the police will cease all activities if the parents don’t file a complaint. Unlike many countries there are as of yet no other organizations in Portugal, which have the legal status to file a complaint in lieu of the parents.

Some Portuguese have had to pay heavily because they didn’t know about a small but significant distinction: anyone who offers a minor of 16 or over to someone else is guilty of pimping. This is all the more confusing because some 16-year olds have no trouble entering gay discos such as the famous Finalmente.

In view of the overcrowding of the prisons, the authorities have proposed a law which provides the possibility to turn certain prison sentences with a maximum of three years into steep fines. The opening of the borders seems to carry us back to a situation which is worse than before 1982, and similar to that of the Salazar period (a period in which, as a matter of fact, nobody bothered about homosexuality as it was forbidden anyway, while bars such as Monumental and Montecarlo just as the park Edouard VII were fashionable, and chicken-hawks would very often return from the areas around the famous orphanage Casa Pia with scores of conquests).

American style t.v.-broadcasts are more and more commonplace. On 23 October 1992, the t.v.-programme Reporter, presented by Artur Albaram and broadcasted around eleven o’clock (Portuguese prime time) on Channel One, elaborated for an hour on pensions of ill repute such as the Casa da Beira, called the “Espanhol” by the boys who frequented the nearby Terminal station, and the Cais do Sodre, which is also situated near the station. A hidden camera filmed the comings and goings of customers, although both pensions have already barred anybody under 16 for a long time, and, in case of doubt, asked for an identity card. The youngsters eagerly testified in front of the camera to the practices they lend themselves and the prices they charge.

The newspaper press also jumped at this subject: The Titulo revealed the scandal of the films with minors which were made in the immediate vicinity of Costa da Caparica at the beginning of the eighties. This came as a stab to the little town, where some English inhabitant had made films which were sold under the name of Rebelo.^[1]

After that a branch of an association led by Jean-Claude Krieff (who had been the catalyst in the French Coral affair)^[2] settled in Costa da Caparica... with an effectiveness which is all the more sneaky because most collaborators are former streetboys themselves who have no trouble getting in contact with the local youth and easily manage to overwhelm them. One of their tactics is to drive the boys in the arms of foreigners with the promise of a reward if they return with some dubious pictures...

The Sabado of 22 July 1992 didn’t hesitate to accuse the wondrous Reno - a professor at the University of Florence who is well connected in the Vatican, and who is a photographer of both prelates in cassocks and naked boys - of making love with boys between 14 and 20 in public places. If Reno returns to Portugal, he runs the risk of four years imprisonment, especially because the police have managed to track down the mothers involved and have persuaded them to file complaints and to claim compensation in the amount of about 400,000 escudos (2.500 dollars) each.

The door of the pension, where Reno invited the boys, has been smashed - by those same boys, the police claim, because they wanted to take revenge. It needs to be said that the police, who, until some years ago, were always ready to help in cases of violence against foreigners, have now ceased to do anything, and, on the contrary, are always ready to demonstrate a wealth of cleverness when it comes to ducking complaints.

At the moment though, the padre Frederico affair is doubtlessly the most prominent one. The affair began on 1 May 1992, when this Jesuit from Madeira, who loved to fondle and photograph fifteenish boys, was accused of having abused, or having tried to abuse, a young, epileptic scout, at which the scout had had an accident or had committed suicide as he ran away from the padre. His shattered body was found on the rocks in the area. At first the padre denied that he knew the boy, but later on he admitted to have known the boy and he openly came out as a homosexual.^[3]

If they start to turn to their own cesspits of vice, we may conclude that the Portuguese themselves are becoming more prudish.

But maybe you are planning a trip to Portugal because it is Portugal, and you are looking forward to contacts with inhabitants of all ages. If you can manage to arouse no undue suspicion with mistrustful characters, you will still find here the naughtiness and the sensuality which make up the unchanging basis of a country, which goes through radical changes because of it’s integration in our puritan Europe. But only commit yourself to those you deem worthy, and wait till they have come of age...

(The boys depicted are Portuguese, but have no connection whatever the contents of the article.)

^[1] In his memoir A Dangerous Love (London: Arcadian Dreams, 2023), p. 224, the boysexual English music teacher Stephen Nicholson describes a naturist filmmaker calling himself Rebelo who brought Portuguese boys to the French resort of Cap d’Agde in order to make a film in 1992. [Website footnote]

^[2] The French Coral Affair was a scandal which erupted in 1982 over allegations that visitors to a special school for retarded boys had sex with the inmates. Krief was a petty criminal and blackmailer who falsely accused Jack Lang, the Minister of Culture and the eminent writers René Schérer and Gabriel Matzneff of participating. After causing misery for them, he retracted his accusations and was eventually convicted of slanderous denunciation. See Matzneff’s journals Les Soleils révolus 1979-1982 and Mes amours décomposés: 1983-1984 for a vivid account by one of his victims. [Website footnote]

^[3] Frederico Marcos de Cunha was a Brazilian priest convicted in 1993 of having on 1 May 1992 picked up and murdered Luís Miguel Escórcio Correia, a 15-year-old boy who was walking on foot along the road to Caniçal. [Website footnote]