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A Perspective
Phillip L. Velez
Organizing, outreach, and creating societal and political change within the Latina/o lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender (LLGBT) community in New York City can be grueling and time consuming work. Politics and power struggles are facts of life in local organizing and the work is taking its toll on area activists at a time when a national conference is about to shine a spotlight on the needs of our diverse and growing community. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that Latinos will be the nation’s number one ethnic group by the year 2005. The passage of civil union rights for gays and lesbians in Vermont demonstrates how far the mainstream LGBT movement has come since the 1969 Stonewall riots. Politicians today vie for the Latino and gay/lesbian vote, yet the LLGBT community has not fully established a strongly defined political voice.

The city’s LLGBT community has been working on defining our agenda of issues for quite some time now and will soon have a national forum to address them. The Eighth annual national Encuentro conference is scheduled to take place in New York this October. The conference is presented by LLEGÓ, the Latina/o Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Organization based in Washington, D.C., and the idea of bringing it to New York first emerged about two years ago, but not without controversy. Some local LLGBT leaders were concerned that a conference of national magnitude would take away from local organizing at a time when New York groups were just starting to work together in defining our needs.

The Encuentro: Comité Organizador 2000 (ECO2000), is the local steering committee created to help organize the national conference and has been hard at work raising money, scheduling social and cultural activities, creating workshops and programs and mobilizing local support. ECO2000 is made up of local queer activists, leaders, and community members. The co-gender group brings together members who have been involved in political and community organizing with members who have little or no experience in the field. Having such a diverse group work together for a common goal exemplifies the enormous possibilities and potential that exists within the LLGBT community in New York, however complicated and vast the issues that affect our community are.

Julio Dicent Taillepierre, board chair and acting executive director of HoMoVISIONES, a LLGBT nonprofit organization that promotes the arts and culture to effect social change, says gathering political strength has been slow.

“Part of the problem motivating much of the activism among Latina/os in New York City has been the lack of a network to communicate and feel part of a community that is unique to itself,” Taillepierre said. “LLEGÓ has attempted to be the voice for an immense population of an even larger community that does not yet function as such. With the incredibly rich diversity that exists in this country among Latina/os specifically, this is a daunting task that even mainstream Latina/o organizations have not quite figured out.”

I became involved with ECO2000 in October 1999. Prior to that I had not been politically or socially involved in community organizing. I wanted to contribute to the movement and help create positive change, but I have at times become discouraged. I can go to Escuelita or Krash, two predominantly Latina/o queer clubs in Manhattan and Queens, and see hundreds of fellow LLGBTs socializing and spending money. But where were they all when I marched in the Brooklyn and Queens Pride Parades? I saw many LLGBT spectators but not many participants. Where are they all when ECO2000 has its steering committee meetings?

Sometimes I’ve wondered, “What’s the purpose? Why bother?”

But I have to keep in mind that being politically and socially active in community organizing puts you in the public eye, and some of my fellow Latino queer brothers and sisters may still feel a sense of shame being out in the Latino community. I believe the general queer community has been far more accepting of queer people of color then my own Latino community has been in accepting of me as a gay man.

Louis Ortiz, the former co-chair of the Hispanic United Gays & Lesbians, a pioneering co-gender organization no longer active, and the housing chair for ECO2000, says a handful of Latina/o activist represent the voice and needs of a much larger, but not very much involved, Latino queer community.

“Our women are becoming more politically active,” Ortiz said, noting the increased participation of Latina lesbians in the Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx Pride events. However, “Our men are becoming less committed. The same men working in our community are overextending themselves.”

The recent resignation of Diego Santiago, the co-chair of the Puerto Rican Initiative to Develop Empowerment (PRIDE), an advocacy group, is a prime example of the burnout some activists have been feeling.

“The work can be draining and sometimes it’s a thankless job,” Santiago said about community organizing. “People think we’re always going to be here. It’s time for new blood, new ideas.”

Carolina Cordero Dyer, a board member of the Audre Lorde Project (ALP), a center for LGBT people of color communities based in Brooklyn, provides a possible reason for the burnout LLGBT volunteers are experiencing.

“Our leaders are stretched thin and burnt out. It is difficult for us to be at the table, e.g. lobbying in Albany, meeting with elected officials, demonstrating against police violence — when we do these things as volunteers, trying to squeeze this in during a lunch hour or after work.”

The few who represent the greater community have to tackle serious community issues. A good many LLGBT organizations have come and gone, and funding is paramount to keeping local service groups running. Ortiz says the community needs to find ways to tap into federal, state and local money that can make a difference.

“Our organizations need to seek funding that will sustain year-round hired staff to address our issues,” he told LGNY.

Cordero Dyer is particularly concerned about violence and police brutality and would like to see LLGBTs examine these issues closely.

“Our community is doubly vulnerable, as Latinos and as queers to violence. We experience violence in our families, our communities, from our police force, and in prison. Before we join the mainstream LGBT community’s call for enhanced penalties for hate crimes, we need to have the time and resources to reflect upon the strategies that will work for the Latina/o LGBT community.”

One of the most serious issues facing both the general Latino and LLGBT communities today is the disproportional rate of HIV/AIDS infection. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Hispanics accounted for 20 percent of all new AIDS cases in the United States in 1998, although they represented only 13% of the entire population. The rate of new AIDS cases among Hispanics in 1998 was 28.1 per 100,000 population, almost four times the rate for whites.

Andres Duque, coordinator of Mano a Mano, a network of New York City-based LLGBT organizations and activists funded by the Latino Commission on AIDS, says the community in New York needs increased funding and technical training on organizational development. He says we need more access to better and more comprehensive health and legal services, especially for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. He also noted the community’s need for immigration and legal services, along with access to housing, political leaders and media.

Robert Vazquez-Pacheco, the director of education and organizing at ALP and a former employee of LLEGÓ, says the national organization has helped a great number of grassroots organizations find funding through their technical assistance program. He supports the national group’s overall mission but personally feels that “it can behave the way many national organizations do, without any substantive dialogue or input from the various communities it claims to represent.”

Duque says there has been past tensions between LLEGÓ and local organizations, which may be a reason there has not been strong community support for the national conference.

“New York City is so unique when it comes to Latino LGBT organizing,” Duque explained. “Community outreach strategies that might work for LLEGÓ in cities where there is just one Latino LGBT organization might not necessarily be the best strategies to use in a city where there are over 12 Latino LGBT organizations,” said Duque.

Cordero Dyer thinks the national LLGBT group does an excellent job with its annual conferences, providing an arena to educate and network, and has been transformed, motivated, and inspired by them, but feels the organization’s overall goal is unclear.

“I do think that there is a lack of clarity in the LLGBT community about LLEGO’s mission. We know that it is our national organization, but is it’s mission organizing, advocacy, or technical assistance? It has traditionally focused on health and HIV prevention, yet many in our community want our national organization to give us a stronger political voice.”

We, as a community, are still a work in progress. We are taking steps in the right direction, and maybe all we need is a little patience and gratitude for our accomplishments. Latina lesbians and Latino men have found ways to work together. Years ago there was a powerful gender gap that hindered our advancement. Today there are more LLGBT organizations, especially those of specific ethnic backgrounds, like Colectivo Mexicano, the Ecuadorian group Latitud 0, the Brazilian Rainbow Group, the Primer Movimiento Peruano, and COLEGA, the Colombian, lesbian and gay organization. And there have been locally organized successes like the 1998 and 1999 Northeast Regional Pa’fuera Pa’Lante (Out and Forward) Conferences.

The upcoming Encuentro conference offers opportunities for new initiatives in our community. It could even be the spark that brings inactive Latina/o queer activists out of the urban woodwork and the fire that flames a whole new movement of leaders, young and old, gay, lesbian, and transgender, to the cause.

Jimmy Lopez-Acosta, chair of the board of directors of Latino Gay Men of New York and the co-founder of PRIDE, feels that this year’s Encuentro is a great opportunity for the entire Latina/o LGBT movement in NYC. He hopes to see innovative new leaders come face to face with political pioneers and share important issues that will affect us all.

“There are people who have not been involved in local organizing in quiet a while,” said Lopez-Acosta. “The Encuentro conference can energize the local community to identify what’s truly needed.”

To find out more about the upcoming national Latino conference, visit its web site at <eco2000.homestead.com>.


Phillip L. Velez, a longtime
LGNY contributor,
is the publicity and
outreach co-chair for ECO2000.

I have to
keep in mind
that being politically
and socially active
in community organizing
puts you in
the public eye,
and some of my
fellow Latino queer
brothers and sisters
may still feel
a sense of shame
being out
in the Latino
community

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