Last Updated on May 7, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry
Roberto Gonzalez was a trail-blazing gay pastor and LGBTQ-rights activist in Argentina. He died on April 8, 2024, at age 78 in Buenos Aires after several months of hospitalization. He is survived by his husband, Norberto D’Amico, who pastors the church that Gonzalez founded in 1987: Iglesias de la Comunidad Metropolitana (ICM) in Buenos Aires.
Gonzalez was the first religious leader to publicly defend LGBTQ rights in Argentina. He marched at the head of Argentina’s first Pride parade in 1992, daring to show his face while all the other clergy hid behind masks. He even chained himself to the gate of the Vatican embassy to protest anti-LGBTQ pronouncements. These were among many brave public demonstrations by Gonzalez, who founded ICM in Buenos Aires as part of the LGBTQ-affirming denomination Metropolitan Community Churches. It was MCC’s very first church in the whole continent of South America.
He pastored ICM in Buenos Aires for decades and became a frequent guest on television talk shows. His courageous actions paved the way for Argentina’s marriage-equality law and other reforms, and he became a respected public figure there. Gonzalez also made a global impact, ministering through MCC New York and celebrating the wedding of 12 LGBTQ couples at the 1995 International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) World Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
A photo that is famous in Argentina shows Gonzalez at the head of the nation’s first Pride march in Buenos Aires in 1992. He is wearing his signature clergy collar and large crucifix necklace.
Internationally acclaimed queer theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid was a fellow student with Gonzalez in the 1980s when they both studied at ISEDET (Evangelical Institute of Higher Theological Studies), the world-renowned ecumenical seminary in Buenos Aires. In the introduction to her 2006 book “Liberation Theology and Sexuality,” she describes how she and Gonzalez were both part of an informal network of Latin American theologians who called themselves “La Virtual QTL” (the Virtual Queer Liberation Theology) group. The chapter “Love in Times of Dictatorships: Memoirs from a Gay Minister from Buenos Aires” by Gonzalez and D’Amico is included in that book. The Virtual QTL group also included Hugo Córdova Quero, who went on to translate Kittredge Cherry’s articles into Spanish for the Santos Queer blog and co-edit the 2023 book “Queer Ministers’ Voices from the Global South” with a revised version of the chapter by Gonzalez and D’Amico.
Roberto Gonzalez: My personal memories of a brave gay activist and friend
Roberto was a friend for more than 30 years. As I remember it, we first met in the early 1990s when he and his life partner Norberto visited MCC’s international headquarters in Los Angeles as part of a delegation of about five MCC church leaders from South America. They all crowded into the tiny office (nicknamed “the KitPit”) where I worked as ecumenical and public relations director. I felt tremendous respect for everyone in the group as they described how they did LGBTQ ministry under harsh conditions and military dictatorships. They spoke solemnly about class analysis and base communities doing theology from the grassroots. I had studied Latin American liberation theology and Paolo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” in seminary, but they were living it!
After Roberto and Norberto returned to Buenos Aires, they continually impressed me by sending dramatic reports of their latest protests and church events. I eagerly opened the international envelopes with written accounts and photos of their activities. Every time their audacious faith stunned and inspired me.
I was stunned when news reached MCC headquarters that Roberto had chained himself to the gate of the Vatican embassy in Buenos Aires. He took this bold action as part of a group protesting the local Catholic archbishop’s pronouncements against LGBTQ people.
Roberto Gonzalez chained himself to the Vatican embassy in Buenos Aires to protest for LGBTQ rights. Beside him is Norberto D’Amico.
I recall the reaction of my colleague Elsa Martinez, who grew up in both Argentina and the United States. Wide-eyed, she exclaimed, “He is BRAVE!!!” Risking arrest in Argentina was a much bigger danger than doing civil disobedience in California. An estimated 30,000 people, including LGBTQ activists, had “disappeared” under the previous Argentine military regime,
But for Roberto, it was just one of many times that he took a public stand for justice. I wrote up the highlights as news reports in Keeping in Touch, the MCC denominational newsletter that I edited. I was proud to know Roberto and support his ministry from afar. I met him and Norberto again at various MCC conferences. To me, they seemed inseparable and a beautiful example of a couple complementing each other in joint ministry.
“UFMCC Protests Discrimination in Argentina” was the top story in “Keeping in Touch” in October 1994. The photo shows Roberto Gonzalez blessing a Pride march in Buenos Aires.
Over the decades Roberto, Norberto and I stayed connected over the Internet. I looked back through our messages and was touched to read Roberto’s last words to me: “Espero que puedan cuidarse mucho. Ten la seguridad de nuestras oraciones. (I hope you can take good care of yourselves. Be assured of our prayers.)”
Roberto, you can be assured of my prayers too. May you shine forever in God’s rainbow embrace!
Roberto Gonzalez: Birth and rebirth
Roberto Oscar González was born Nov. 29, 1945 in Rosario, a city in central Argentina. While growing up, he attended the Methodist church and dreamed of becoming a pastor. Later he became a Salvation Army officer, helping refugees and migrants from neighboring dictatorships in Chile and Uruguay to gain asylum in the still democratic Argentina in the 1970s.
During this period he struggled with his homosexual desires in an intolerant church and society. Gonzalez prayed to be “cured” of homosexuality and took testosterone treatments in an effort to become heterosexual. He married a woman and had two children, María Isabel and Francisco.
However his attraction to men only grew stronger. He got divorced but was still praying to be made straight when a pastor introduced him to the Fraternidad del Discípulo Amado (Fraternity of the Beloved Disciple), the forerunner of LGBTQ religious groups in Argentina. Gonzalez began studying at the prestigious ISEDET seminary, where he made a big impression by coming out with a flamboyant style, “gracefully wearing chemises, silver bracelets and smoking his signature Kent cigarettes,” according to the article “Roberto González and Norberto D’Amico: a story of love and faith” on the Argentine news site Pagina 12.
ISEDET officials allowed Gonzalez to keep studying after he came out, but they warned him that he would not be hired for a pastor job. They were right, so he founded ICM in 1987, the same year that he completed his Bachelor of Divinity degree from ISEDET. The part of himself that he had tried to suppress became a source of strength and power for the gay pastor.
Soon he met the man who would become the love of his life: Norberto D’Amico. As reported by Pagina 12, D’Amico was so atheist at the time that he didn’t pay attention when Gonzalez broke the news on their second date that he pastored a church for gays and lesbians. He told Pagina 12, “We said we were going to take things slowly… After 20 days we were living together!” Soon D’Amico had a conversion experience that led to decades of joint ministry and activism with Gonzalez.
There are many parallels between the lives of Gonzalez and MCC founder Troy Perry. Both were gay men whose faith inspired them to leave conservative churches and heterosexual marriages to found LGBTQ-affirming churches and Pride marches. They each took risks by protesting in the streets, effectively opening up society tor greater LGBTQ equality,
This artistic portrait of Roberto Gonzalez is the work of Luis Camilo Laborde, from Bogotá, Colombia. He created it when he learned of Roberto’s death. (Courtesy of Norberto D’Amico.)
As stated in his ICM obituary, “Roberto González’s life can be summarized as half a century of risking his life and giving up the comforts he could have had when he reached old age, to serve the LGBT community and defend human rights and social justice.”
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Related links:
Adiós al pastor gay Roberto González, referente histórico lgbti (Goodbye to gay pastor Roberto González, historical LGBTI symbol) (pagina12.com)
Oración al Cristo del Arco Iris (Rainbow Christ Prayer in Spanish)
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This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBT and queer martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
This article was originally published on Q Spirit on May 1, 2024.
Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.
Thanks, this is a wonderful gift. I had just given a workshop and they had given me the lovely framed piece that I am holding. I have great affection and respect for that group. They were involved in the legal challenges to homo and trans oppression. Roberto, Presente!
Thank you for this thorough tribute to Roberto. I met him and Norberto in Argentina where i taught at ISEDET from 1980-81. He was a unique and courageous person who paved the way. He and Norbert had a welcoming home where people, myself included, felt in community. May his memory inspire.
Noberto gave me access to many photos of Roberto for this tribute, and one of them includes you! I will try to upload the group photo with you and Roberto comes from 2010 now. It’s great to hear from you, Mary, because I appreciate your ministry around the world through WATER!