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Outlook: Ditching military gear for glitter: Paraguay’s Queen of drag

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Omar Mareco as Envidia

29/05/2024 GMT

Ditching military gear for glitter: Paraguay’s Queen of drag

BBC World Service - Outlook, Ditching military gear for glitter: Paraguay’s Queen of drag

In the military Omar Mareco carried the flag on parade but now he leads a different march

When Omar Mareco was sent to the military to toughen up he became an ace recruit, carrying the national flag on parade but now he is an LGBT icon leading a very different march.

Omar Mareco grew up in Paraguay under a Dad who embraced macho culture and a Mum who just wanted him to be himself and be happy. He was sent to the military aged seventeen to toughen up. So Omar became the most macho guy he could be, the best military student, leading parades and carrying the national flag but inside he was miserable. He tells reporter Grace Livingstone that it was only when he found himself on stage as glittery drag artist, Envidia, that he truly found his voice. He's since become an icon for gay rights in Paraguay, a country where homosexuality was illegal until 1990.



It was Purnima Devi Barman's grandmother who first connected her to nature. She was homesick and lonely and found solace among the trees and birds. But it was one bird in particular, an ugly one with a bald, pink head and a dangling pouch on its chest that she really fell in love with: the greater adjutant stork. It's known locally as the hargila or bone swallower, it's a scavenger and seen as a bad omen. When the birds were nearing extinction in the early 2000s Purnima set to work creating the 'Hargila Army', an all-women conservation movement that transformed the bird's fate. She's just won the Gold Whitley Fund for Nature award.

Presenter: Ramita Navai
Producer: Eric Mugaju

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707

(Photo: Omar Mareco as Envidia. Credit: Grace Livingstone)

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