Same-Sex and the City

Johnny Diaz is experiencing what he calls "first-book jitters." It's exactly one month before the national release of his debut novel, Boston Boys Club, and he stumbles a bit when asked what he thinks about the portrayal of Hispanics--particularly openly gay Latinos--in pop culture.

"Are there any openly gay Hispanic portrayals in pop culture?" he questions, curled over a cup of coffee in a crowded café in the heart of Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. How about the younger nephew in ABC's Ugly Betty or even Ricky Martin? "Honestly, I can't think of one portrayal of an openly gay Latino in contemporary popular culture," Diaz explains. "It's like a Latino code of silence. We know you're gay, but it's in our machismo nature not to talk about it."

Diaz says he's determined to depict a multifaceted professional Latino who happens to be gay. "That's one of the reasons why I wanted to write this book." he explains, wearing a short-sleeved shirt during an unusually cold spring day in Boston. He rubs his arms for warmth and jokingly says he feels like a "Cuban popsicle" throughout the interview. "Hispanics are always portrayed as either street thugs, cleaning people, or as the gardener. And the Latin gay guys I've seen are always hot, overly sexualized tricks from Miami."

In Boston Boys Club the former reporter for The Miami Herald and current staff writer for The Boston Globe follows a trio of friends as they search for that perfect guy at an ultrahip boy bar in Boston, the Club Café. While Diaz insists his story is a fictionalized account of his life after moving from Miami to Boston five years ago, the 34-year-old author admits that he intertwines real-life locales (like the Club Café, which is in Boston's South End), events, and yes, people in Boston Boys Club.

"The main character, Tommy Perez, covers Hispanic-related issues at a paper similar to The Boston Globe," he says, adding that his alter ego works at a pub called The Boston Daily. "Tommy lives in Harvard Square, and I used to live near Harvard Square."

There's one character, Kyle, described as the lean, preening model and former reality show star who makes a red-carpet entrance into the club every Thursday as if a swarm of cameras still follows his every move. The acclaimed journalist claims that Kyle wasn't inspired by Dan Renzi, Diaz's former boyfriend whose romance was chronicled on MTV's Real World: Miami more than 10 years ago.

"Kyle is not Dan," he shoots back. "There are a lot of former reality stars out there who want to be models. The characters in the book are all composites of people I've met and known over the years."

Renzi, who has relocated to Miami after spending years in Los Angeles, laughs out loud when Kyle's background is described. "C'mon, how many former reality stars does he know with aspirations of being a model who ultimately becomes a public speaker?" jokes Renzi. "I mean, the name of the show Kyle was on in the book is called The Real Life."