LGBTQ Agenda: Queer people celebrate announcement of Bad Bunny’s Bay Area Super Bowl performance despite ICE threat 

The National Football League’s decision to have Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny as the headliner of the Super Bowl halftime show, which will be in Santa Clara, has become the latest flashpoint in America’s culture wars. Some MAGA adherents and members of the Trump administration have threatened boycotts and possible immigration enforcement.

Bad Bunny himself, however, was ecstatic after the September 28 announcement by the National Football League, Apple Music, and Roc Nation.

Super Bowl LX will take place Sunday, February 8, at Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers.

“What I’m feeling goes beyond myself,” Bad Bunny stated in a release. “This is for my people, my culture, and our history.”

Bad Bunny, or Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, dubbed the “King of Latin Trap,” is a straight ally. He described himself as “sexually fluid” in a prior interview with the LGBTQ newspaper Washington Blade, stating in 2020 that, “At the end of the day, I don’t know if in 20 years I will like a man. One never knows in life.”

Since then, the 31-year-old has been critically acclaimed and broken into the mainstream music market. His third solo album, “El Último Tour Del Mundo,” became the first Spanish-language album to top the Billboard 200. His fourth, “Un Verano Sin Ti,” was the first Spanish-language album nominated for Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Indeed, Bad Bunny does not sing in English, telling Vanity Fair he has no plans to do so, either.

"I feel more comfortable in my own language,” he said. “I think in Spanish, I feel in Spanish, I eat in Spanish, I sing in Spanish.”

Hence the backlash from supporters of President Donald Trump. Corey Lewandowski, a longtime Trump confidante who now is an adviser to the Department of Homeland Security, announced October 2 that United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be present at Bad Bunny’s show.

On the conservative influencer Benny Thompson’s show, Lewandowski said, “There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you and apprehend you and put you in a detention facility and deport you. So, know that is a very real situation under this administration, which is contrary to how it used to be.”

Bad Bunny had said earlier in an interview that he did not schedule tour dates in the U.S. this year due to fears over ICE. In well-documented instances since Trump’s return to power earlier this year, immigration enforcement has run afoul of the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of due process of law, as courts have ruled.

Bad Bunny recently wrapped up a sold-out residency in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, this summer. The New York Times reported the shows attracted an estimated 600,000 attendees during the three-month, 30-show concert series. The residency boosted Puerto Rico’s economy by some $400 million, which includes purchases not directly related to the shows, the paper reported.

Bad Bunny talked about his decision not to include the U.S. on his tour.

“There was the issue of – like, fucking ICE could be outside [the concert],” Bad Bunny had said earlier this year. “And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

NFL executive Jon Barker defended the league’s decision to have the star perform.

“Bad Bunny represents the global energy and cultural vibrancy that define today's music scene,” Barker said, according to Reuters. “His unique ability to bridge genres, languages, and audiences makes him an exciting and natural choice to take the Super Bowl halftime stage.”

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights organization, praised the NFL’s decision.

“Puerto Rican artist and Latine cultural icon Bad Bunny is headlining the Super Bowl 60 halftime show,” the LGBTQ organization posted to Facebook. “Throughout his seismic rise to international superstardom, Bad Bunny has honored and celebrated LGBTQ+ culture, people, and art, all while challenging cultural norms and stereotypes.”

Bad Bunny has challenged homophobia in the music industry, saying, “Homophobia in this day and age? How embarrassing, man,” in reference to homophobic comments from fellow reggaeton artist Don Omar. 

At the 2022 Video Music Awards, Bad Bunny famously kissed a male dancer.

That incident, and his penchant for dressing in gender-fluid clothing, however, led to the singer being accused of queer baiting – allegations he responded to in a Vanity Fair interview.

“I get an endless number of negative comments and sexist and homophobic ones, without being homosexual, for dressing like that,” Bad Bunny said. “Maybe the queer person suffers more, but it is not like I put on a skirt and go out and they say, ‘Look how cool.’ They’re going to attack me either way. … You don’t know the reasons why a person is wearing that. You weren’t in his mind when he decided to put on a skirt or a blouse. You don’t know what’s inside him, what’s in his heart.”

Dulce Vasquez, a bi woman who unsuccessfully ran for California state Assembly last year, responded to online criticism of the singer for agreeing to do the Super Bowl while spurning tour dates in the U.S.

“I’m so tired of people saying that Benito is a hypocrite for doing the Super Bowl after not scheduling any tour dates in the mainland US due to ICE,” Vasquez wrote on Threads. “He’s still not scheduling any tour dates. If you’re going to the Super Bowl for the halftime show and not the game, you’re part of the .000001%. The rest of us are going to dress up for the sala.” (By which Vasquez means one’s living room.)

On September 19, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie raised the NFL flag at City Hall with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to kick off the celebration of the return of the Super Bowl, which chooses the world champion for this season of American football, to the Bay Area.

“San Francisco is the ultimate sports city,” Lurie said. “We know what these type of events do for our city, for our region.”

Added Goodell, “This is going to be one of the great Super Bowls – another way to celebrate this community as well as the NFL.” 

Fans won’t have to wait until February to see Bad Bunny. He will host the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live” October 4 on NBC alongside musical guest Doja Cat.

LGBTQ Agenda is an online column that appears weekly. Got a tip on queer news? Contact John Ferrannini at [email protected].