Mykki Blanco arrested after Portuguese airport altercation

Rapper and performance artist Mykki Blanco won’t be holidaying in Portugal anytime soon after experiencing an arrest and a deluge of hatemail and death threats from anti-gay extremists as he arrived in the country for a series of gallery gigs. The gender-bending star, real name Michael Quattlebaum, Jr., had just landed this week (beg19May14) when he was arrested following an airport altercation with a police officer, according to Noisey.com.
He insists he was jailed because he’s gay, taking to Facebook.com and writing, “I’m being arrested in Portugal for being gay.”
He later added, “I’m leaving Portugal after my performance. Please stop writing hate speech, threatening to hang me, posting pictures of slaves and leaving gay hate messages on my page, I have seen a really disturbing side of this culture tonight.
“I’M OVER PEOPLE DEFENDING PORTUGAL BECAUSE OF FALSE NATIONAL PRIDE. GUESS WHAT? YOUR COUNTRY IS JUST AS F**KED UP AS ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD. DEAL WITH IT.”
Reports suggest Blanco was ordered to pay a 600 euro ($820/£513) fine following his arrest before he was allowed to board his flight out of the country.
He tells Noisey.com, “I was swindled by the Portuguese police department for being a gay black tourist. That is the only explanation for this situation. I had literally just got off of a plane was in the airport on my way to the art gallery I am currently doing a residency at and I was taken advantage of by the Portuguese police. More than an act of racism and prejudice or even homophobia… I realised that class matters and that an upwardly mobile black man isn’t something people always want to see.
“I was arrested for telling a police officer to ‘go f**k himself’ after I repeatedly and politely asked him where I could purchase a taxi voucher, since he worked with the taxi attendant at the airport.”
He adds, “The world ain’t (sic) a fair place, and the idea of a young successful black guy doesn’t always fly everywhere but I was insulted, and discriminated against so I said, ‘F**k you’, and walked away… He said, ‘You have insulted a police officer and that is a crime in Portugal, you can’t talk to me that way’ and he arrested me.”