Foreign Exchange Students Are Being Sexually Abused ] Full Story

By Anna Schecter
Rock Center  

Dozens of high school foreign exchange students have been raped, sexually abused, or harassed by American host parents in towns and cities across the country, an NBC News investigation has found.

In one of the most egregious cases, at least four exchange students were sexually abused over the course of two years by the same host father, even after the first victim sounded alarms.

“He said ‘this is American culture,’ and I should get used to it,” Christopher Herbon of Germany told NBC News in an exclusive interview to be broadcast Wednesday night on Rock Center.

The organization that placed them with the host father has been accused of orchestrating a cover-up to protect its reputation over the safety of the students. 

Every year more than 25,000 teens from around the world come to America as part of a program overseen by the State Department that is hailed as an integral part of U.S. diplomacy.

Most of those teens have a great experience and cases of sexual abuse are rare. But NBC News’ investigation found two major flaws in the system.  A lack of oversight can allow sexual predators to take advantage of the program. And when sexual abuse does happen, there is evidence that the students are sent back to their home countries with little or no support from the exchange organizations or the State Department.

There are more than 80 organizations that pay a fee to get the State Department’s stamp of approval as a "designated sponsor organization." That distinction allows the organizations to place the students with host families for one academic year.  Each organization in turn must follow regulations designed to protect the students from harm.

The host families do not receive any compensation, but the students’ parents can pay more than $10,000 for their child’s year abroad. The largest organizations for which there are records take in an average of seven million dollars each year, according to an NBC News review of their Internal Revenue Service filings.

The more students they place, the more revenues for the organizations, and critics say the financial incentives create an environment ripe for abuse.  

"These sponsoring agencies make a lot of money for each of these kids.  The profit margin is very big, and they’re motivated to get them into some house, somewhere, without the proper vetting.  So it's a perfect storm.  It's sort of abuse waiting to happen," said attorney Irwin Zalkin, who along with attorney Andrea Leavitt represented Herbon and three other exchange students sexually abused by a host father and local coordinator for one of the organizations.

GUILLAUME’S STORY

In August 2003, the year before Herbon came to the U.S. as an exchange student, 18-year-old Guillaume Le Mayeur of Belgium was excitedly packing for his American adventure.

Le Mayeur’s parents paid the equivalent of $10,200 for their son's year abroad.  A Belgian agency, World Education program, made the arrangements with an American organization called Educational Resource Development Trust, ERDT.

Photo Courtesy of Dennis Massingill

Guillaume Le Mayeur

Le Mayeur was hoping to live in New York or Los Angeles, but instead ERDT placed him in run-down trailer in rural Arkansas.  His host father was 34-year old Doyle Meyer.

Meyer, his then wife Gigi, and a former exchange student were sharing the cramped trailer when Le Mayeur moved in.   

“When I first came there, I [had] a little bit of disappointment about the place … and I said to myself, ‘Well, you're here now.  You just have to accommodate yourself and….make the best of it and take it,’” Le Mayeur said in an exclusive interview with NBC News’ Rock Center.

Le Mayeur said within a month of his arrival, Meyer started talking about sex, touching and hugging him, and unsuccessfully trying to get him to sleep in his bed with him.

“He would hug me, well, trying to hug me a lot.  He would take my hands and he would ask me to lie on his chest when he was watching TV,” he said.  

He said Meyer bought alcohol and marijuana for other exchange students living nearby, showed them pornographic films, encouraged them to show him their genitals and once measured a male student’s anatomy with his bare hand.  

On an ERDT trip to Washington, D.C., Le Mayeur said Meyer allowed students to videotape two teens having sex, and watched the tape with them. 

The students slept two to a bed in a local motel, and Le Mayeur said he was assigned to sleep in the same bed as Meyer, who tried to massage his stomach and touch his genitals. Le Mayeur said he jumped out of the bed.

Once back in Arkansas, Le Mayeur said he tried to report the molestation and Meyer’s irresponsible behavior to his local coordinator, Pat Whitfield.  He said he set a time to meet with Whitfield, but she called Meyer and invited him to sit in on the meeting.

“So I couldn't say anything I wanted [to say]. But they were like best friends and [Meyer] went to talk to her first,” said Le Mayeur. 

Le Mayeur said Meyer became intent on having him expelled from the program in order to silence him. He said Meyer reported him to ERDT executives for driving a car (against the program’s rules) and smoking marijuana, both of which Le Mayeur admits. 

Photo Courtesy of Guillaume Le Mayeur

Doyle Meyer

ERDT did expel Le Mayeur.  Back home in Belgium, ashamed and shunned by his own family for being kicked out, he found the courage to write an email to ERDT staff detailing what happened to him and other students and warning them that something must be done to protect other students.

“I think that something must be done to stop that as fast as it is possible…because [one] day or another something bad is going to happen,” Le Mayeur wrote in the email.

ERDT never reported Le Mayeur’s allegations to state authorities or the State Department.  Instead the organization launched its own investigation led by staff who later admitted in a 2010 deposition that they had no experience with an investigation of alleged abuse.

“SWEPT UNDER THE RUG”

Plaintiff attorney Andrea Leavitt said ERDT circled the wagons, protecting the reputation of the organization over the safety of the students for whom the organization was responsible.

“There are no disclosures to parents for the children coming in. There are no disclosures to the kids.  There are no warnings.  Everything is swept under the rug, concealed.  Absolutely every parent's nightmare,” Leavitt said. “They begin to circle the wagons.  And rather than protect the vulnerable kid, they start to protect themselves from liability and exposure,” she said.

ERDT executive Kelli Jones wrote to her staff asking for anything “positive” they knew about Doyle Meyer as she was preparing a report for the Belgian exchange company, WEP.

In August of 2004, two months after Le Mayeur sent his email, Jones wrote to her staff saying that Meyer should know that ERDT “went to a lot of work, time, and energy to clear his name and support his good reputation.”  She went on to disparage Le Mayeur, writing, “As far as I’m concerned it may not be over with yet. [Le Mayeur] may rear his ugly head again.” 

ERDT decided Meyer should not be a host father the following year, but would remain working as a coordinator, whose job it is to supervise students.

According to fellow coordinator Theresa Benevides and host father David Krenn, Meyer was known as a “high placer,” meaning he was able to find an above-average number of families to host students. 

“He placed almost 20 kids. He was very valuable to ERDT because he brought in so much money,” Benevides said. 

A SECOND ROUND OF ABUSE

During the fall of 2004, Meyer served as 16-year old Christopher Herbon’s coordinator.   Herbon said he was unhappy living with an unfriendly elderly couple with no children, isolated in a remote area. He told this to Meyer, and in early 2005 Meyer arranged for the teenager to move in with him.  By this time, Meyer had separated from his wife and was living with another current exchange student on the outskirts of Little Rock.

Herbon said Meyer began to give him alcohol and Oxycontin shortly after he arrived.  He said Meyer would press him to show him his genitals once he was intoxicated, and even gave him male enhancement pills.

“I was afraid that if I wouldn't make him happy, he would kick me out, and that I would be sent home.  I didn't want to disappoint my parents. I was very afraid that he would send me home because my parents would be very disappointed,” he said.

In addition to Herbon, Meyer was sexually abusing other exchange students that academic year.  When one of them finally told Benevides, she alerted the police and Meyer was arrested in May, 2005.

“KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT”

When word got out about the arrest, Benevides said ERDT executives flew to Arkansas and told the local coordinators not to speak about the abuse.  She said at a meeting convened in Arkansas, Jones told her, “Keep your mouth shut.”

Meyer pleaded guilty to first degree sexual assault and served four of a six year sentence. When NBC News reached him by phone at his mother’s Arkansas chicken farm, he refused to comment on this story, saying that his parole was almost up and he wanted to move on with his life.  

In 2010, attorneys Zalkin and Leavitt filed a civil suit against ERDT on behalf of Le Mayeur, Herbon, and two other students. ERDT settled the case for an undisclosed amount without admitting liability. 

Kelli Jones, who has since been promoted to President of ERDT, declined to comment on this story.   But in a 2010 deposition, she told Leavitt that she did not consider Le Mayeur’s account of Meyer’s behavior to be sexual abuse, but rather  “immature idiotic boy behavior.”

The ERDT regional coordinator who handled the investigation is still in the same job. Whitfield, who was Meyer’s friend and fellow coordinator, was fired.  She is now working for another exchange organization hosting and placing students in Arkansas. Whitfield  declined to comment on this story.

STATE DEPARTMENT DEFENDS THE PROGRAM

When asked why ERDT is still operational after a case like this, State Department spokesperson Toria Nuland said that ERDT was one of the organizations that helped the Department draft new regulations in recent years to better protect exchange students from abuse.

“They have been complying as we've strengthened the regulations with the improved standards, which is why we've kept them on our rolls.  They themselves were horrified and victimized by this situation,” Nuland said.

In 2009 the State Department asked the Inspector General to investigate Youth Exchange Programs following a series of reports of mistreatment of exchange students. 

The Inspector General’s scathing report found “insufficient oversight of the youth exchange programs at all levels.” It said communication among staff “borders on unprofessional,” there was a “lack of human and financial resources” in the office running the programs, and an “erroneous assumption” that the exchange organizations monitor themselves.

Nuland said that as a result, the Department increased staff overseeing the program, dropped a number of organizations from the list of designated sponsors, and implemented new regulations to more thoroughly check out host families.

In addition, Nuland said that before exchange students come to America, they now receive a package of information about their rights, and what they should do if they encounter any problems in the U.S. or problems with the host family.

“We are strengthening the checks on the front end, staying with the kids so intensely during the program,” she said.

The State Department did not have a central log of complaints until the 2009-2010 school year, but issued NBC News its data from the 2010-2011 year that showed sexual abuse or harassment was reported by less than one percent of the total number of high school students who spend a year at an American high school. They said that percentage includes any and all harassment, even if it did not involve a host parent. 

“The vast majority of high school foreign exchange students have an enormously gratifying, rich, fantastic American experience that lasts with them for a lifetime,” Nuland said.But problems in the program persist, and ERDT is not the only organization involved.  Rock Center’s investigation found fourteen different organizations where students had alleged being sexually abused or harassed by a host parent.  Several of the organizations have faced lawsuits for placing students in harm’s way.Wednesday’s broadcast will include an interview with a student who says he was sexually abused by his host father this past Christmas.Nuland said that from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's point of view even one child abused under these programs is one child too many.  http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/

“

Roland Martin CNN, Back From Suspension For His Homophobic Comments

 Commentator had been pulled off air for anti-gay tweets

  BY GREG HERNANDEZ

gaystarnews.com

Photo: CNN

CNN has lifted commentator Roland Martin's suspension five weeks after the network banned him from the air fortweets he wrote during the Super Bowl that were viewed by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and others as homophobic.

CNN had never put a time limit on the suspension. The network merely stated early last month that Martin 'will not be appearing on our air for the time being.'

Martin got into trouble when he took to Twitter to post some comments to his 95,000 followers about an H&M advertisement featuring soccer star David Beckham that aired during the Super Bowl.

The tweets included: 'Ain't no real bruhs going to H&M to buy some damn David Beckham underwear' and 'If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!'

GLAAD immediately called for Martin's firing but later met with him in Los Angeles. After the meeting GLAAD said in a statement that 'both parties came away with a better understanding of one another and look forward to continuing this dialogue.'

On his show Washington Watch, Martin acknowledged after meeting with GLAAD that his words had a negative impact and told viewers: 'If anyone who construed my comment[s] as being anti-gay or homophobic, or advancing violence, that was not my intent, and for that I was truly sorry.'

CNN had called Martin's tweets 'regrettable and offensive' because they contained language that demeans.

The network did not release a statement on Martin's suspension being lifted but mentioned it during a conference call with the media on Monday (12 March).

The Backlash Against Limbaugh It’s Been a Long Time Coming

THE NEWS: Rush Limbaugh has lost close to 100 sponsors since he called a Georgetown University law student named Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute," while calling for her to post sex tapes of herself online.

THE PROVOCATION: A lot of people are mystified at the level of backlash over Rush Limbaugh's latest statements. They've demurred that Bill Maher and others have used similar language and "gotten away with it." What these critics don't seem to realize is that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Limbaugh. (The durability of said iceberg is probably the reason Limbaugh is in denial about global warming.)

Limbaugh has been at this for decades. No, this does not excuse Bill Maher from using demeaning terms to describe Michelle Bachmann or Sarah Palin. But one must note that Maher's a comedian by trade and both of these women are public figures. The person Limbaugh attacked, by contrast, was a private citizen simply seeking to be involved in the process of affecting government. And Limbaugh's no comedian. He's a political attack dog who appears to relish demeaning and defaming people.

(No, I'm not letting Maher off the hook - more on him a bit further on.)

My characterization of Limbaugh is neither idle nor rashly made. Just consider, if you will, some of the bile that "El Rushbo" has inflicted on his audiences - a cavalcade of rude, disrespectful and barbarous insults surging up from a seemingly bottomless pit of invective and spilling forth unimpeded through the floodgates of his cavernous maw. A partial list of said invective appears further down.

Then consider for a moment a different case: that of former National Public Radio commentator Juan Williams. Not so long ago, Williams was fired for the following single statement: "When I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

A lot of people get nervous when they see people dressed in a certain way. Is it an expression of prejudice? Yes. But isn't it better to be honest about one's own emotional prejudices than to mask them behind a politically correct veneer?

"Aha!" my critics will say. "We've backed you into a corner! Limbaugh is just being honest: He's got the guts to say what no one else will because they're all constrained by political correctness."

Not so fast. There's a huge difference between considered civility and blind political correctness. And it should be pointed out that, in the same interview, Williams emphasized how absurd it would be to blame all Muslims for the actions of a few extremists, comparing such broad-brush generalizations to blaming all Christians for the actions of Timothy McVeigh. Williams hardly deserved to be fired for a single statement that was taken out of all context. Yet he was. And Limbaugh (who is hardly blameless when it comes to insulting Muslims) remains behind the microphone.

And unlike Williams, Limbaugh issued no such qualifying statements in his tirade on Fluke. He seldom, if ever, does. Instead, he insists on stereotyping women, minorities, Democrats and everyone else with whom he disagrees. It's as though they belong to some dense, undifferentiated monolithic slab. Apologize? Consider what Limbaugh told a caller after he declared, “I’m like a woman when you get to numbers. I don’t follow them too easily.” (And this from a man continually criticizing others' economic policies.)

Limbaugh's response when the caller indicated she was chagrined at his overtly sexist remark? "I’m not going to apologize. People in my position never apologize. But we just acknowledge that you were upset and offended by it. I’ll apologize you were offended." In other words, Limbaugh's actions weren't wrong, the caller's reaction was - and he had the audacity to apologize for her behavior, as though he were some all-powerful deity with the ability to forgive the wayward caller's sins.

Perhaps that's how he views himself. According to the Christian belief system with which so many of his callers identify, asking for forgiveness is pretty high on the list of core ideals. Interesting, then, that he considers himself above doing so. Even Jesus, when approached by someone who addressed him as "good," demurred by asking the fellow, "Why do you call me good? No one is good, save God alone." One could picture Limbaugh arguing this point, based on his "no apologies" policy.

It's a policy he finally violated when he decided to apologize to Sandra Fluke for calling her a "slut" and a "prostitute" ... but only after he spent the entire day after the incident defending himself. And only after sponsors began to stop paying for a "privileged" place amid the cacophony of combativeness that is his radio program. Can you say, "disingenuous?" What the god of Christianity couldn't convince him to do, the god of capitalist greed commanded. He heard and obeyed.

Maher's tweeted defense of Limbaugh on the grounds that "he apologized, liberals looking bad not accepting" was as phony as a $3 bill. The lack of sincerity in said apology makes Limbaugh look bad, not liberals. (And let's not even mention the fact that liberals have no place in accepting or rejecting the apology - that's Sandra Fluke's prerogative alone.) In fact, Maher seemed to be covering his ass by the Freudian admission, "Also hate intimidation by sponsor pullout." In other words, he's afraid that if Limbaugh is taken to task for being rude and demeaning, he'll be hit in the pocketbook, too.

There's a word for that: cowardice.

Maher attempted to elaborate on his position by declaring that "I don’t like it that people are made to disappear when they say something or people try to make them disappear when they say something you don’t like. That’s America. Sometimes you’re made to feel uncomfortable, OK?”

Excuse me, Mr. Maher, but no one is going to make me feel uncomfortable. Is the concept of free speech really that hard for people to comprehend once they get paid millions for putting a microphone in front of their faces? If so, here's a refresher course. Yes, this is America. That means you have a right to say rude and obnoxious things. You do not have a right to do it in front of a microphone. That's called a privilege. Got that straight? Good. Because I have the right to ignore what you say - to my face or into a microphone over some "50,000-watt blowtorch." I have the right to change the channel. I have a right to shop wherever I please for whatever reasons I choose - even if those reasons include the fact that I don't like your show and want to send your sponsors a potent message. You can't make me listen to you, and I won't allow you to make me uncomfortable. Capish?

Or, as John Scalzi put it in his blog, Whatever, "The First Amendment guarantees a right to speech. It does not guarantee a right to respect. As I am fond of saying, if you want people to respect your ideas, get better ideas. Likewise, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequence. If you’re going to parade around on television engaging in hateful bastardry, then, strangely enough, people will often call you out on it."

That's a big part of what this column is about: calling bullies and hypocrites on their shit. And Limbaugh's verbal excrement is more putrid than most. This isn't just about Sandra Fluke. It's about a pattern of bigotry, racism, sexism and brutish incivility that few others can match - either for intensity or duration (though Ann Coulter - another friend of Maher's - comes close in the former category). So without further ado, let me offer up a few quotes from Limbaugh over the years to illustrate why the outcry in his case is so intense.

• “Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”
• “The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”
• To an African American female caller: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”
• “We need segregated buses… This is Obama’s America.”
• “Women should not be allowed on juries where the accused is a stud.”
• “Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women access to the mainstream of society.”
• “Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog?” (while holding up a photograph of 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton on his 1993 television show)
• “Let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do — let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.”
• “I’m a huge supporter of women. ... I love the women’s movement — especially when walking behind it.”
• “ We need to shut down this Gitmo prison? Well, don't shut it down  —  we just need to start an advertising campaign. We need to call it, 'Gitmo, the Muslim resort.'  ”
• “There are more American Indians alive today than there were when Columbus arrived or at any other time in history. Does this sound like a record of genocide?”
• “The only way to reduce the number of nuclear weapons is to use them.”
• “I think this reason why girls don’t do well on multiple choice tests goes all the way back to the Bible, all the way back to Genesis, Adam and Eve. God said, ‘All right, Eve, multiple choice or multiple orgasms, what’s it going to be?’ We all know what was chosen.”
• “When a gay person turns his back on you, it is anything but an insult; it’s an invitation.”

That's just a sampling. Many more examples are readily available. But the point is made. Everyone makes mistakes and crosses the line now and then. But a pattern of rude, demeaning behavior followed by a half-assed, forced apology doesn't constitute grounds for a second chance. Insult me once, shame on you. Insult me repeatedly, and I pull the plug. And don't dare try to play the victim. The backlash is long overdue. We all should have said "enough" to this abomination years ago.
theprovocation.net/

The Ricky Interviews with The Advocate } This is it

 

As he prepares to bring sizzling Latin authenticity to his role in the Broadway revival of Evita, megastar Ricky Martin reveals the other passions in his life.

By Jeremy Kinser
 
Photography by David Needleman

“I was seduced by the madness and the fame,” Ricky Martin says, letting out a deep breath as he leans back on a sofa in a studio in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The 40-year-old superstar’s chiseled features, which once made him an MTV fixture, ensure he’s still boyishly handsome, but there’s also a well-earned maturity that wasn’t evident when Martin became a household name. “Once I took a moment to step out of the spotlight and create my family, I thought it was the perfect moment to have this stability.”

Having settled down with his partner and two children in New York this winter, Martin has found a constancy that seemed to be missing when he first became a superstar more than a dozen years ago. The singer is in many ways liberated, certainly from the closet in which he hid his sexual orientation. Perhaps the best word for Martin is one he used to describe himself last year while accepting an award from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation: free.

He may be free, but today Martin is a very busy man and on a rigid schedule. Martin arrives at the studio for this interview and photo shoot accompanied by his longtime publicist, John Reilly, and his manager, Jose Vega, who’s been with him since he joined the wildly popular Puerto Rican singing group Menudo when he was 12 years old. He’s just come from a wardrobe fitting for Evita, a Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s celebrated political-themed musical; it’s the reason for his move to New York. And though he says he’s eager to get home to see his twin sons, Matteo and Valentino, Martin takes time to offer a friendly smile and firm handshake to everyone on the small crew assembled for the photo shoot. Although it’s a brutally chilly Friday afternoon in Manhattan, Martin is gregarious and warm.

Martin’s charisma appears effortless and genuine, and his magnetism isn’t reserved for the cameras. The crew, most of whom are gay men, exchange glances to signify that this will be an exciting afternoon. Even the lesbian studio manager—no stranger to superstar photo sessions—is hovering about, clearly smitten with Martin.

His crossover appeal is, by now, almost legendary.

Born Enrique Martin Morales to a Roman Catholic family in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he began driving women and gay men wild as a member of the boy band Menudo. In 1984, Martin was recruited into the group to replace a departing member, and he would remain with Menudo for five years. In Menudo he was trained to make fans swoon, and he achieved teen idol status, selling out huge venues, appearing on magazine covers, recording dozens of albums—sometimes up to four per year—and starring in Pepsi and McDonald’s commercials and appearing on television shows including The Love Boat.

Feeling stifled creatively, he left Menudo in 1989 and began a solo career that yielded four hit Spanish-language albums, a year-long stint as a bartender on the daytime drama General Hospital, and a turn in Les Misérables on Broadway, before a performance that would alter the course of both his career and contemporary music. In 1999, while still relatively unknown in the U.S., Martin performed a pelvis-gyrating version of “La Copa de la Vida” (“The Cup of Life)” to a standing ovation at the Grammy Awards. Months later the international chart-topping success of his self-titled English-language album and its inescapable lead single, “Livin’ la Vida Loca,” would usher in the Latin pop explosion, helping to prepare the lucrative U.S. market for Latin entertainers Jennifer Lopez and Enrique Iglesias. Martin was everywhere: MTV,Saturday Night Live, dozens of magazine profiles, even on the cover of The Advocate as the subject of a 1999 article that examined “Ricky fever.” His level of stardom made a literal truth out of the title of his loca hit song.

“You have to be careful,” he says now about playing to sold-out stadium crowds around the world. “It’s not easy to deal with fame. I’m very lucky to be surrounded by amazing people who are raw and honest, who will say I’m wrong, and who will also congratulate me.”

Martin seems to take his own celebrity and the accompanying power in stride. In March 2010 he ended more than a decade of speculation about his personal life with a simple message he posted on his website and linked to on Twitter. It read, “I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man.”

He remembers a tweet he received after that, from a straight Latino father thanking him for coming out, saying it allowed him to better understand his own gay son. Martin was so touched that he sent the man a direct message back. “I wrote, ‚’Sir, you just made my day. Go and hug your child.’”

In the fall of 2010, just months after he came out, Martin published Me, a best-selling memoir that examined his colorful career and the secretive private life that led up to his decision to come out. Me explored Martin’s romantic relationships with both men and women, and it addressed the infamous interview with Barbara Walters in which he refused to answer her questions about his sexual orientation. Martin says he hasn’t read the book since it was published.

“Exactly a week ago I had it open on my computer and I started reading a paragraph and had to stop,” he says, his voice cracking and his eyes tearing up. “I had to stop. It reminded me of the place I was when I was writing it.” Martin stops, regains his composure, and smiles.

“When I released the book, the people I met doing the in-store signings were like, ‘Please allow me to give you a hug. You have no idea what you’ve done for me.’ I had no idea it was going to be like that,” he says. “When I started writing this book I just wanted to let go of a lot of things I was holding within.”

Until this year’s guest appearance on Glee, Martin hadn’t acted since Les Misérables.Glee cocreator Ryan Murphy, a fan of Martin’s, had pursued the singer and wrote the episode specifically for him. “He has such star power,” Murphy says. “Even the straight boys in the cast were just gob-smacked by his confidence and said if they ever turned, it would be for Ricky Martin.”

Murphy says Martin was nervous about the acting but nailed every take. In fact, he was so taken with the star’s professionalism that he has spoken with Martin about starring in his own series. “If he’d relocate to L.A., I’d write a TV show for him in a heartbeat.”

The pleasant experience Martin had on Glee makes him wonder why he’d waited so long to return to acting. “I was very busy with so many things that I didn’t realize I missed acting,” he says, before adding with a laugh, “This had to happen.”

Martin is referring to the Broadway revival of Evita, which will open this month. The performer, who made his debut on the Great White Way nearly 16 years ago (as the love-struck Marius in Les Misérables), will headline this reportedly sexier restaging ofEvita as Che, the rebellious voice of the people and antagonist to Argentinean first lady Eva Perón.

It’s not uncommon to pair an iconic performer with an iconic character, but as with Madonna, who played the title role in the 1996 film version, Martin as Che is particularly cleverly cast. Webber predicts that Martin will be “fabulous” in the role, and the character—a revolutionary inspired by Che Guevara—who finds Evita seductive, yet is horrified by her opulent lifestyle, is someone Martin feels he’s been preparing to play his entire life.

Che’s conflicting emotions are appealing to Martin. “I get to feel many things. I can go from anger to love to uncertainty within 30 minutes of the show,” he says. “That’s amazing because that’s what my life has been about for the last three years—feeling. Not sabotaging any kind of emotions. Letting everything just come through me and verbalize it. It’s a very spiritual exercise that I’ll do every night.”

But it’s the common cause Martin finds in his character’s desire to correct social injustices that really inspires him. “The man I’m portraying is all about the people and working for human rights,” Martin says. With the Ricky Martin Foundation, an organization committed to ending human trafficking and the exploitation of children, Martin too has been working for human rights. “And since I came out, I’ve been verbal about the importance of equality and what needs to be said. That’s what Che is about too. That is going to be my inspiration, my motivation every night.”

Witnessing brutality and exploitation around the globe spurred Martin to action. He recalls in particular a trip to Cambodia, during which he saw photos of a young girl being sexually exploited.

“I had a breakdown when I saw those images,” he recalls; his face is now flushed, and there’s anger in his voice. “I was like, ‘Fuck, I’m out of here.’ I hate seeing that man seducing that little girl. I just hate that.”

Martin says one of his mentors grabbed his hand to calm him. “He said, ‘Ricky, please hold on tight and focus. If you can just save one life from the sexual exploitation, you will have won. It will have been worth it.’”

Martin continued to educate himself about the human trafficking epidemic, his foundation even spearheading the first research on the subject ever conducted in Puerto Rico. “Crime is so organized and under the radar,” he says. “It manifests in so many ways. Human trafficking can be sexual exploitation or child labor or organ trafficking. I realized that while the majority of human trafficking is through selling drugs, there’s also sexual exploitation within the world of drug trafficking. With every child that is a victim of one type of trafficking, there’s a big chance that he’s been a victim of another kind.”

Martin plans to build a series of child development and prevention centers for at-risk youth, beginning with one in Loíza, Puerto Rico. “There are 13- and 14-year-old boys and girls selling drugs,” he says. “We’re creating this holistic center to open the doors to all the kids. We also want to protect the mothers.”

Though his commitment to the Evita redo and his foundation are significant, they pale next to his devotion to his twin sons, Matteo and Valentino. The boys were born via a surrogate mother in 2008. It was Martin’s desire, after years of avoiding discussion of his sexual orientation, to live an honest life with his children that led him to come out two years later. “I don’t want my family to be based on lies,” Martin told Oprah Winfrey in 2010, during his first interview after coming out. “I want to be transparent to them.”

“Every decision I make and everything I do is based on their needs,” Martin says about his sons, now age 3. “I don’t want to sound cliché, but they teach me new things every day.”

“Valentino is mister peace and love,” Martin says. “He loves flowers and nature. If I ever wonder where he is, he’ll be somewhere behind the bushes covered in mud. He’s just at one with nature.” Martin pauses briefly, then decides to continue. “I know this sounds crazy, but I think he meditates. He goes under the water.” Martin imitates being submerged in a tub of water. “I’m like, He’s gone. He’s traveling right now. He’s very Zen and noble.” Matteo, Martin says, is a little more demanding. “He’s more alpha and a leader. He’s like, ‘You don’t do that, this is what you do.’ He tells his brother what to do and what not to do.”

Martin is very much a hands-on father and raises his sons with the help of his mother, who frequently travels with him, and Rose, their nanny. Martin’s sperm was joined with eggs from a donor he selected from a book; the fertilized eggs were then implanted into a different surrogate mother. Neither woman knew Martin was the father. When it’s suggested that his sons have inherited his good looks, he smiles. “I ate a lot of protein,” he says, laughing. “I don’t know if that worked, but I was very healthy-eating and resting for a whole month before I got the cup.”

The boys have already become accustomed to life on the road. Martin took a sabbatical from touring during their first year and maintained a stable home life while he wrote Me and recorded his most recent album, 2011’s Música + Alma + Sexo. When Martin went back on the road to support the hit album, he took his sons along.

“Every other night we were on a plane,” he recalls. But the two boys quickly developed a large surrogate family while on the road. “It was amazing because they’d walk through the venue or arena. The crew was building the sets and they’d stop what they were doing and smile and say, ‘Hi Valentino, hi Matteo.’” Martin pauses again and lets out a breath before adding, “They are tools of healing, of love, these two. The crew would go back to focusing on their work and dealing with their stress, but those five seconds with the kids were very beautiful for them.”

Even within the chaos of traveling, Martin maintains a structure for his family. “The amount of love these kids have is crazy,” he says. “Me and Carlos, my mother, Rose, the dancers, the sound engineers…” Martin’s voice trails off.

Above: Martin’s guest appearance on Glee, including cast members Dianna Agron, Vanessa Lengies, and Naya Rivera.

The Carlos he refers to is Martin’s boyfriend of nearly four years, Carlos Gonzalez Abella, a financial analyst/stockbroker. Martin has been hesitant to discuss his boyfriend in the past, but now he flashes a toothy smile and leans in a bit, his voice growing softer. “I think he’s so sexy. He’s very smart. That is such a turn-on,” Martin laughs. “He leaves the house every day in a suit and tie and that is so sexy. It’s two different worlds—his and mine. I know as much about his world as he knows about my world, which makes it really cool.”

Martin acknowledges that dealing with media and public scrutiny isn’t easy for the press-shy Abella. Except for occasional paparazzi shots, the two are rarely photographed together. While being honored at the GLAAD Media Awards last year, Martin thanked his boyfriend from the podium. “He takes it one step at a time,” Martin says. “And still my world—our world—is full of surprises every day, even for me. We complement each other beautifully in many ways.”

His partner is also equally dedicated to providing stability for Matteo and Valentino, Martin says. “There’s a lot of love and a lot of communication. He’s guided by the approach I take with the kids, he imitates it perfectly.”

Martin insists he wasn’t looking for a relationship when a mutual friend introduced the two men in 2008. “It was just one of those things that just happened,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘You’re not supposed to be here right now. Would you please allow me to just go on my journey?’”

“People say be careful what you wish for. The other day—” Martin pauses again. He’s cautious of saying too much about his partner. “I don’t care. I’m going to say it. The other day he said, ‘I was looking for a boyfriend and God gave me a family.’ I said, ‘That’s beautiful, but you were looking for a real man with a family and you got it.’” 

The Spanish-language version of this interview, translated by Carlos Mayor, can be found at http://news.advocate.com/post/19162397373/ay-ricky. A Barcelona-based translator and journalist, Carlos is currently traveling around Central America and will write about his trip for Out Traveler. Be sure to check out his web site atwww.carlosmayor.com.