Invisible Latino Gays and Lesbians
En La Vida, September 2001
voces de lesbianas, gays, bbisexuales y transgeneros latinos,
Copyright © 2001 Lambda Publications Inc. All rights reserved.Part I
by Osvaldo Del Valle
I recently returned from Milwaukee, where I attended the 23rd National Council of La Raza (NCLR) Conference and Latino Expo. The National Council is the largest U.S. advocacy and public policy organization for Latinos and Latin Americans living in the U.S. This year's conference was held on July 14-18 and averaged 12,000 registered attendants.
I was invited to attend the Lideres-- Youth Summit, where I presented a workshop on leadership & organizational development. The Director of Leadership Development, a colleague of mine at the NCLR, invited me. I decided not to go representing my school (DePaul University) or the Association of Latin Men for Action (ALMA), where I formerly served on the board and am currently a general member. I decided to attend representing an online group I started back in January of 2001: The Midwest Latino Gay Men's Online Resource (MLGM).
The words "Midwest Latino Gay Men's Online Resource" were written right under my name on my conference badge for the conference. I suddenly felt proud and held my head up a little higher. I felt as if MLGM was validated. Responses were either a mixture of surprise/ amazement or a lot of people nodding their heads, not really sure of how to respond. Overall, I was surprised at the positive responses, which varied from "Oh, yes! The community (Latino) definitely needs more gay and lesbian involvement," "We need more inclusion of our gay and lesbian hermanos y hermanas," and "I/We're glad you're here."
Now I have been to many conferences in my time (NCLR, U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute, National Puerto Rican Coalition, etc), my friends even call me a "conference junkie," but this was different. I had never experienced such positive reactions. I had a wonderful time and yet, there was something that did bother me-- it was a feeling I could not place right away. It finally hit me on Monday-- I seemed to be the only Latino gay man at any of the workshops, meetings, panels or events. Now, I know I was not the only one there. I am certain there had to be others , but I was the only "out" and vocal Latino gay man there or person that was representing a gay organization. I looked around for others and the only other Latino gay or lesbian person I found was Alicia Amador from Mujeres Latinas en Acción. I do not know how many Latina lesbians Alicia may have come across, but I know that Alicia and myself could not have been the only ones there. With an estimated 12,000 in attendance, only two "out" gay people (that I found) did not make any sense. What was evident was the fact that Latina/o gay and lesbian people were and are underrepresented at these types of conferences.
Also, at the Latino Expo, the largest Latino expo in the U.S., there were no organizations representing queer Latino issues or affairs. The National Latina/o Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Organization (LLEGO) did not have a booth and they had been involved in the past at least once. There were organizations there that conducted HIV/AIDS services, but gay and lesbian issues were not part of their services. There were no workshops or panels on GLBT/Latino issues. The only booth I found that did have material on GLBT issues was the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, their ACLU rep who after reading my nametag handed me a flyer with information on the ACLU's Gay and Lesbian rights project. The gentleman representing the ACLU had to go underneath the booth's table to fetch the flyer from a box. It was not even out on display!
All of this reminded me of a conversation I once had with a prominent gay Latino university official who told me that back in the day, Latino gay and lesbian people were tolerated within Latino agencies and organizations as long as they kept their sexual orientation a secret and a non-issue. He also stated that some of these agencies were even founded by gay and lesbian people.
I can understand how people might have had a need to hide their sexual orientations back then. But here we are … post "dawn of a new millennium" and given the advancements of gay and lesbian civil rights, why is it that within the Latino community gay and lesbian people are still not represented? Granted that even with in the non-Hispanic communities, gays and lesbians still have yet to reach a utopian dream of inclusion and unity, but there is dialogue.
One answer I concluded was that Latino queer people in the past had to choose between their Latino identities and their gay identity. Either choice was detrimental to themselves and both communities at large because they ended up sacrificing one for the other. Queer Latinos feared being ostracized from the Latino community and vice versa, queer Latino individuals feared that if they chose their queer side, they had to abandon their Latino issues. But that is no longer the case anymore, or is it? It still happens today and this needs to change! It is not going to change on the part of the straight Latino community leaders and activists, it will only change when we, the queer Latinas/os make that change for ourselves and stop fearing being left out of the process. We have to in effect invite ourselves to the table. We are just as much as "Latinas/os" as our straight counterparts. It is a known fact that Latinos now comprise the largest minority population in the country, but this means nothing if we are not unified as a people. We (Latinos: straight and gay) need to bring everyone to the table and work out our issues, if we do not, then we might as well become the largest divided minority community in the U.S.
For instance, last year, I presented a workshop in Wichita, Kan., for service providers on how to service gay AND Latino clients. I spent a great portion of time just dispelling myths about queer people in general, never mind getting to the Latino cultural dynamics. What started out as one type of workshop turned in to a sensitivity training. We need to ask how Latino queer people are being serviced in non-gay Latino agencies and if they are even servicing the population at all.
If the positive responses I received from individuals at the conference I mentioned earlier are of any indication, the time of excluding Latina/o queer people must come to an end. A time of inclusion must begin. I challenge and ask straight and queer Latinas/os to begin this process, for the benefit of us all.
"NCLR keeps a number of workshop slots open for topics that are proposed by people. I believe workshops on the subject of GLBT issues within the Latino community are a great idea and an issue that is overdue. The NCLR is always committed to opening up new avenues for dialogue," stated Marco Davis, Director of Leadership Development for NCLR. He encouraged me to submit a workshop proposal on inclusion of GLBT issues for next year's conference to be held in Miami. I plan to attend and I plan to present a workshop on this particular topic. The time is now for the Latino community and Latino queer community to come together and discuss issues such as services rendered to queer Latinos by non-gay agencies, homophobic service providers and so fourth. To conclude, la comunidad Latina needs to include its queer brothers and sisters in to the broader Latino community process, not for queer Latino people's sake, but for every ones empowerment.
Next month part II, "The balancing act: Queer activist, Latino activist or both?"
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