Mykki Blanco arrested in Portugal, accuses police of homophobia

Blanco posted about the arrest on Facebook, where he wrote “I’M being arrested in Portugal for being gay” along with various photos from within the police station, which have lead to some heated arguments within the comments. Blanco later posted: “I’m leaving Portugal after my performance. Please stop writing hate speech, threatening to hang me, posting pictures of slaves and leaving gay hate messages on my page, I have seen a really disturbing side of this culture tonight.”

Noisey reached out to Blanco for more info, and he issued the following statement explaining the arrest:

...The altercation escalated because I waited in a long line outside the airport for a taxi and when I was told I could not use my credit card but only cash (which also is not true I later found), the taxi attendant and cop refused to help in any way. They were impatient and short with me all the while eagerly helping white tourists. A Portuguese woman in line with me even leaned over and whispered, ‘I don’t know why they are being so strange with you, there is a place inside to buy taxi vouchers you don’t need cash’. I should have listened to the woman and went inside to find the voucher office but there is a part of my personality that really wants to see if people WILL actually be prejudiced, to see if maybe my PC west coast optimism about the world is being challenged by blatant discrimination and I was right. I asked the police officer where the voucher office was and I was told to “go away” like I was a nuisance and when I asked why he could not help but the other white tourists I was yelled at and told to “go away bicha” which is a gay slur, even though I had waited in the same line as everyone else.”

For more info, you can view the original, still active posts on Mykki’s Facebook and check out the original Noisey piece here.