theFeed advance LGBTQ+ rights and the community in general.” Alvarado, who previously won Mr. Gay Pride España 2018, spoke to Spanish media outlet Redacción Médica about being named to the title, and his recent experience with COVID-19. The doctor, who works at Lavapiés Health Center in Madrid, said he first started to show symptoms on March 10, in a translation by Queerty. “I began to notice them while on duty at the hospital,” Alvarado said. “It started with a dry cough, but we were in a moment of collective chaos, so I didn’t pay much attention to it.” Alvarado said that the next day he was hit with fatigue and muscle aches, but said that after coming off a 24-hour shift it was “normal that you have the feeling that you have been beaten.” “It was hard to tell if that usual tiredness was from work or the symptoms,” he said. After his symptoms worsened, he was tested for COVID-19 on March 12. The test came back positive, and he quarantined in his room at his shared apartment for 19 days, though Alvarado said his symptoms only lasted for the first six days. “When I told my grandmother she burst into tears,” he said. “Little was known about the disease at the time and there was fear of uncertainty.” On March 31, he was tested again. It came back negative, and Alvarado was able to return to work on April 3, which is where he learned that he would be stepping into the title of Mr. Gay World. “I was at the health center when they told me,” he said,
calling the news an “injection of fresh air in the circumstances we’re living.” In addition to warning about the severe nature of the virus, Alvarado said that conditions at the hospital have started to take their toll on staff. “This is my sixth year working and I’ve never seen patients so bad every day,” he said. “There were patients who were fine one day and the next they had very high fever spikes and low oxygen saturation.” Of his fellow health care workers, he said, “The tiredness…is already noticeable. We are more irascible and [have] much less patience.” Spain has been heavily impacted by the pandemic, with more than 280,000 confirmed cases of the virus and almost 28,000 deaths. However, there are signs that the worst of the pandemic might be over, as the country registered its lowest daily death toll in more than two months. Regarding what he might focus on during his time as Mr. Gay World, Alvarado noted that work needs to be done to combat discrimination in health care, as well as wider society. “[Thirty] years ago, the World Health Organization [delisted] homosexuality [as a] mental illness,” he said. “Today, in 2020, there is still talk of conversion therapies to cure homosexuality.” He also called out health care professionals who “are not able to set aside their moral judgments” when treating LGBTQ patients.
Senseless Censor F
God’s Own Country distributor Samuel Goldwyn censors film on Prime Video. By John Riley
RANCIS LEE, THE DIRECTOR OF THE GAY ROMANtic film God’s Own Country, took umbrage after learning that some of the sex scenes in the 2017 movie had been removed on streaming platforms. The movie, which stars Josh O’Connor and Alec Secăreanu, chronicles the relationship between a sheep farmer in Britain’s Yorkshire region and a Romanian migrant worker. Due to the film’s exploration of 24
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homosexuality, the film was banned in some Arab and Eastern European countries. Lee took to Twitter on Wednesday to call out Amazon Prime, which he believed was responsible for deleting the scenes. “Dear friends in USA, God’s Own Country appears to have been censored on @PrimeVideo (Amazon Prime),” he tweeted. “Until this is investigated please do not rent or buy on Amazon
