Paul A Reyes

Frankie Miranda was in kindergarten the first time he was called a fa—t. Growing up in Puerto Rico, he was bullied by other students and sexually assaulted by a teacher. Once, he confided in a middle school teacher that he had feelings for other boys. The teacher told him to go home and pray to Jesus. 

Today, Miranda is the first openly gay president of the Hispanic Federation — one of the nation’s largest Latino advocacy organizations — and is drawing upon his experiences to help push back against recent laws and policies that target LGBTQ people. 

Miranda is part of a broader movement among Latino advocates and leaders that is raising awareness of the shared struggles of Latino and LGBTQ communities, as conservative governors and state legislatures continue to promote anti-LGBTQ measures.

Miranda, 51, believes that measures like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law and the state’s restriction on gender-affirming care for minors will actually hurt children. For example, he said, children will not report bullying or hazing. “The laws are creating fear and misinformation for parents and are designed to demonize some of the most vulnerable people in our community,” he added. 

Under Miranda’s leadership, the Hispanic Federation has created the $1 million Advance Change Together Initiative, which is funding groups working to protect Latino LGBTQ rights. “The purpose of the Initiative is to empower under- resourced local organizations, so they can continue their work,” Miranda said. “We need to show that our community supports LGBTQ rights.” 

‘We know what discrimination is’

A 2022 Axios/Ipsos Poll found that 62% of Latinos say they are comfortable around people who identify as LGBTQ. A Gallup survey released that same year found that about 11% of Latino adults identify as LGBT, compared with 6% of Americans overall. 

For Pride Month 2023, the League of United Latin American Citizens — the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organization — issued a call for state legislative bodies to protect and defend the rights of LGBTQ citizens. Jesse Garcia, who served as LULAC’s past LGBTQIA+ chairperson, said, “State legislatures have the power … to stop recent legislation attacking youth in schools, drag performers, and families making their own health decisions.” 

Since Garcia started the group’s first “Rainbow Council” in Dallas in 2006, LULAC has passed national resolutions on everything from repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to opposing conversion therapy to supporting marriage equality. 

Now a LULAC member in Washington D.C., Garcia is proud of his role in the group’s advocacy efforts. 

“LULAC has always had openly gay members, and they were loved and beloved. We just had to have conversations at the local and national level,” he said. “But LULAC members are civil rights people. We know history, we know how to organize. We know what discrimination is.” 

Latinos have a long tradition of LGBT activism. In 1961, Jose Sarria became the first openly gay candidate to run for public office, when he ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In 1969, Sylvia Rivera helped lead the Stonewall riots in New York City, considered the birth of the LGBT rights movement. In 1987, Cesar Chavez — one of the first national civil rights leaders to support gay rights — served as a grand marshal of the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. 

More recently, Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., the first openly gay Afro Latino to be elected to Congress in 2020, drew on his firsthand experiences to put LGBTQ issues in the legislative forefront. “As a child of the Bronx who grew up in public housing, I was often too scared to come out of the closet in my youth,” he states in his website. “I feel the weight of history on my shoulders. I know firsthand the discrimination members of the LGBTQ+ community face, and am determined to make positive change for my community.” 

Torres’ first bill to pass the House ensures that LGBTQ-owned businesses have equal access to capital and credit, and he voted for the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same-sex marriage rights. 

‘We don’t want any of that with our kids’ 

But the increasing visibility of transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming people has generated some backlash among Latinos in the faith community. A majority of Latino Catholics (66%) as well as Latino Protestants (81%) believe there are only two genders, according to a June Public Religion Research Institute survey. 

Samuel Rodriguez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, a national organization representing Latino evangelicals. 

“Latinos are vehemently opposed to any teaching of gender and sexuality in elementary and primary schools,” Rodriguez said, adding that there are many Latinos involved in the campaigns opposing LGBT and gender instruction in public schools. “We don’t want any of that with our kids.” 

To Rodriguez, Latinos are often left out of the debate over LGBT and family issues. “We always hear the extreme voices on the right and on the left, because they’re the loudest voices.” “We are people of faith and familia, and we love and respect all people,” Rodriguez said. 

He thinks there should be more room for diverse opinions in the public discourse. “If we are going to have Pride Month at Target, that’s great — but why can’t we have Traditional Family Month? That is simply equity.” 

‘We are never safe’

Gia Pacheco, program director for Organizacion Latina Trans in Texas said it is “a sad reality” that “there are no safe spaces for trans people in Texas, including in queer spaces.” Pacheco pointed out that the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Florida took place in a gay club. 

The current political climate, according to Pacheco, has made OLTT’s work especially challenging. 

“As a trans person, no matter how comfortable we might get, we are never safe,” said Pacheco, whose organization provides emergency shelter and temporary housing for LGBTQ people in vulnerable situations. OLTT is also the only shelter in Texas, according to Pacheco, that is “openly, happily” taking in transgender people. It also offers assistance to transgender migrants and Latinx people seeking gender-affirming care. 

“Trans people are the first to fight for everyone’s rights, but always the last to receive them,” said Pacheco, adding that despite the challenges, the group remains committed to its work. 

“No matter how many laws they pass, no matter how many bones they break, transgender individuals will always be here — and our community will still grow,” Pacheco said. 

Conservative political strategies “are using trans issues as a wedge issue with Latinos, as a divide-and-conquer tactic,” said author and scholar Juana Maria Rodriguez, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who teaches ethnic, gender and women’s studies. 

“The right wing has latched onto transgender issues because they recognize that gay and lesbian rights have garnered traction. They (conservatives) have lost that war,” Rodriguez said. “So they’re trying to divide both the Latino and the gay community by throwing trans people under the bus.” 

The boycotts of Bud Light and Target over their support for the LGBT community, reflect “one of the most extreme backlashes we’ve seen since the AIDS era,” Rodriguez said. 

The UC Berkeley professor is not surprised that Latino advocacy groups are embracing LGBTQ rights. “It really comes down to family. Latinos love their families, and most of us have had una prima que nunca se casó (a cousin who never married) or a tía (aunt) who everyone knew was queer.” 

Still, Rodriguez is concerned that the controversies over LGBTQ issues will harm Latino kids. “The right wing is targeting our love for our children — and trying to make us afraid of the LGBT community.” 

Looking ahead, Frankie Miranda from the Hispanic Federation is optimistic about more “intersectionality” between Latino and LGBT groups. 

“Our communities are not separate,” he said. “And the policies that are happening now, in some states, are trying to push us back into an era that I know well, an environment that can be toxic and damaging for many children.” 

“But data shows that Latinos overwhelmingly support marriage equality and LGBTQ rights,” Miranda added. “We just need to be sure that we are communicating and continuing the conversations, so that everyone is treated with respect and dignity.”

On her wedding day, Nicole Castillo knew that she was making a mistake. She was 20 years old, and both she and her husband knew that she was not straight.

“But at the time, it didn’t feel like it was an option to not be married, and to come out,” she said. “I was concerned about harming my family, and I stayed in that marriage for some time.”

It took Castillo, now 36, until her mid-20s to understand her sexual orientation. “I was from a generation with almost no LGBT visibility. I didn’t know of any gay or queer women.”

As Pride Month winds down, Latinx LGBTQ people report a mixture of optimism and concern for their communities, on issues ranging from the Black Lives Matter movement to violence against transgender people.

Latinx LGBTQ people say that they see significant progress in the struggle for equality, yet stress that the fight for their rights is far from over.

Castillo, from Colorado, said she doesn’t mind that in-person Pride celebrations have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The Pride events are great, but they have become very mainstream, and it sometimes seems like the important issues can get lost.”

In contrast, she noted, “the Black Lives Matter protests are the most immediate, the most raw. That feels in a way more authentic that what Pride has become.”

From Stonewall to increased visibility

The Latino LGBTQ community has a rich heritage of activism. The first openly gay candidate for public office in the U.S. was Jose Julio Sarria, who ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1961. In New York, one of the people credited with starting the 1969 Stonewall Riots — which helped inspire the beginning of the LGBT rights movement — was Sylvia Rivera, a transgender Puerto Rican woman.

In Los Angeles, Robbie Rodriguez, 38, program director for Equality California, said that the last several years have been challenging for Latinx LGBTQ people.

“We have dealt with the very hostile Trump/Pence administration, which has not made me feel great as a Latinx gay man,” Rodriguez said. “Almost every day, the president incites fear and emboldens bigots to be open with racism, homophobia and transphobia.”

But Rodriguez is feeling optimistic because of two recent Supreme Court rulings, one that makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and the other temporarily preserving DACA, the program that has granted deportation relief to young immigrants. “And we should look at the sense of solidarity that has developed in the community as a result of police brutality against African Americans,” he said. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the LGBTQ+ community showing up and showing allyship to the Black community, and lifting up their experiences.”

The visibility of Latinx LGBTQ characters in the media is heartening to Rodriguez, who recalled watching “The Real World” on MTV when he was a kid. “I watched the show with my family, and I remember seeing Pedro Zamora, who was out and HIV-positive. That meant a lot to me.”

In recent years, there has been increased Latinx LGBTQ representation on television, on shows like “Pose,” “One Day at a Time,” and “Love, Victor.” A 2019 GLAAD report found that the percentage of Latinx LGBTQ characters had increased on broadcast and cable, though the percentages on streaming dropped.

Vico Ortiz, a performer in Los Angeles who has appeared on shows like “Vida” and “American Horror Story,” has seen a shift in the public views of LGBTQ people—and believes that the entertainment industry plays a major role. “Having shows with queer characters is important. People who might not know any queer people see these shows, and hopefully that opens up conversations from a place of empathy and compassion.”

Ortiz, a millennial who identifies as nonbinary, describes the last few weeks as a whirlwind. “The anti-discrimination ruling at the Supreme Court was amazing, but literally two days before that, the Trump administration announced that it was taking away health care for transgender people. It’s like whiplash on your heart; we make fantastic strides, and then other stuff happens. It is frustrating; I want future queer youth not to have to deal with any of these issues.”

Recommended

OUT NEWSPride 2020 marks new era for LGBTQ movement, artist Alok Vaid-Menon says

OUT NEWSOn Pride’s 50th anniversary, the ‘revolution’ may have finally arrived

Ortiz noted the absence of in-person Pride events this year, but said that the Black Lives Matter movement was, for now, more important. “We might be missing some glitter parties, but we wouldn’t have Pride without riots and protests.”

Ortiz felt a heaviness on June 12, the fourth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, that left 49 people dead. “I was also thinking of the queer people who may be isolating or quarantined with nonsupportive people.”

‘Fight harder, stronger and fiercer’

Like other Americans, Latinx LGBTQ people are facing the ongoing threat of the coronavirus. The pandemic has disproportionately affected Latinos, putting their health and economic well-being at risk.

For Dr. Rafael Campo, 55, the pandemic carries echoes of a previous health crisis that struck the Latinx LGBTQ community. Campo, who teaches and practices medicine at Harvard Medical School, graduated before drug treatments for HIV/AIDS had been developed.

“There is a sad resonance in the way that HIV/AIDS originally impacted the Latinx LGBTQ population, and what is happening with coronavirus now,” he said, pointing out parallels in the lack of government response, the lack of access to care, the stigma of infection and the health disparities. “How these two very different viruses impact communities of color is part of the symmetry.”

At times, Campo has felt beleaguered by the trials that the Latinx LGBTQ community seems to be facing. Some of his patients who survived the AIDS epidemic feel a sense of renewed trauma, because they are now at risk for COVID-19. “But there are reasons to be hopeful. The demonstrations and activism around racial justice show the strength of our communities. Adverse circumstances can really bring us together and help our communities to become stronger and better.“

“We carry pride within ourselves—and no one can take that away.”

In Puerto Rico, the human rights activist Pedro Julio Serrano, 45, is concerned with the ongoing violence against transgender people, which in his view is not getting the media attention it deserves. “All over the U.S., members of the transgender community are being killed, and this doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Trump’s bigotry and divisive language has contributed to this cycle of violence. “

Puerto Rico’s new civil code, which defines myriad aspects of everyday life, is another issue that is deeply troubling to Serrano. The update coded has been controversial because it potentially could be used to take away LGBTQ rights. “It makes us invisible,” Serrano said. “It no longer includes discrimination protections. Many legal experts say it is inconsistent and poorly written, a judicial mess.”

The Latino LGBTQ community remains committed to the struggle for full equality, Serrano said. “We are going to come back and fight harder, stronger and fiercer.”

Likewise, Serrano said that losing the in-person Pride events was just a temporary setback. “For sure, when you are with other people you feel empowered and you feel solidarity. But you cannot cancel true pride. It is the product of many victories and struggles. We carry pride within ourselves — and no one can take that away.”