MEXICO CITY -- Frustrated that Mexico 's soccer federation has failed to stop a anti-gay chant heard during national team matches, LGBTQ+ activists are appealing directly to local fans to end the offensive habit before next summer's World Cup.

The chant, a one-word slur that literally means male prostitute in Spanish, went viral in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the subsequent fines -- including 100,000 Swiss francs (then $114,000) for two incidents during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar -- had little impact.

"Those fines have been for nothing. And what has the federation done? Not much. And what it has done is useless," said Andoni Bello an LGBTQ+ activist and critic of the chant who played for Mexico in amateur soccer tournaments organized by the International Gay and Lesbian Foo

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