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Gay former adult film actor Antonio Moreno has won a mayoral election in the small Spanish town of Carcelén.
The 38-year-old out politician, who went by the stage name Héctor de Silva, previously starred in gay adult films Hung Country and Star Wars: A Gay XXX Parody. Moreno won the election by 12 votes late last month, or 51.4 percent of the votes, Spanish news site El Espanol reports. Carcelén has about 500 residents.
Back in April, Moreno — who now runs a farm with his partner — didn’t shy away from his gay porn past.
"I take it my past as a porn actor normally because my family, who supported me, knew about it and I have always told them about it. It is a stage in my life that I don't regret because I learned a lot,” Moreno told local news outlet Sur.
Moreno ran for the Partido Popular (PP) political party, which leans conservative. The party previously stood against marriage equality in Spain, however, some PP-led areas of the country have even introduced legislation against anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination.
The mayor-elect previously worked as a firefighter, which he said connected him deeply to the community he’s trying to serve.
"I was born in the city of Albacete but when I arrived here I fell in love with this village and its natural environment, which is spectacular," he said. "I discovered that an aunt of mine had been given up for adoption to a family in Carcelén, I looked for her and I found her.”
Moreno told Sur that the city needs to focus on attracting families and increasing the population.
"Carcelén has many possibilities because it has nature, heritage, and its August festivals that could be more widely known," Moreno said.
After the win, he spoke with El Periodico de Espana and said that his more conservative political beliefs probably affected his chances more so than his sexual orientation or his former career.
“It has not been an easy campaign, because this is a very political town. You live a lot and there are people with very closed ideas. We have met people who have rebuked us or have stopped talking to us. But look, I had never had problems in town because of my sexual orientation or because of my old job,” Moreno said.
He added: “They have rebuked me for presenting myself with the PP, not for being a maricon.”
