Eight Latinx LGBT Activists to Watch

Latinx LGBT Activists

Meet eight amazing Latinx LGBT activists who are changing the world.  This is not meant to be a complete list, nor do I claim to be an expert on who would even be on the complete list.  I can say withought hesitation, however, that these are eight amazing people who I find inspiring, and I believe you will as well.

Daniel Hernandez

Daniel Hernandez Arizona
Daniel Hernandez

Follow Daniel on Twitter: @djblp

Follow Daniel on Instagram: @djblp

Daniel Hernandez is a Victory Fund candidate for the Arizona State Legislature.  You may know him better, however, as the intern for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on the life-changing day she was shot at a campaign event in Tucson.  At the young age of twenty, Daniel’s quick thinking and courageous action is is credited by many for saving Rep. Giffords life.

Now as a candidate he is an outspoken advocate both for LGBT Equality and for sensible gun control.  While this may make Hernandez seem unlikely to be a rising start in a state like Arizona, many locals would describe him as exactly that.  Visit his campaign website at: www.danielforarizona.org.

Joanna Maria Cifredo

Joanna Cifredo
Joanna Cifredo

Follow Joanna on Twitter: @JoannaCifredo

Follow Joanna on Instagram @JoannaCifredo

Joanna Cifredo is the Racial and Economic Justice Policy Analyst at the National Center for Transgender Equality, the nation’s leading social justice advocacy organization winning life-saving change for transgender people.

Joanna serves on the Board of Directors to Whitman Walker Health and the DC Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs Advisory Board.  She is the recipient of the 2015 Visionary Voice Award by National Sexual Violence Resource Center for her work Health Equity and Trans-Inclusive Healthcare, she was also honored by Mujeres en el Movimiento as one of DC’s Rising Stars.  She can sometimes be found blogging at joannacifredo.com.

Marco Quiroga

Marco Quiroga
Marco Quiroga

Follow Marco Quiroga on Twitter: @DREAMarcoAble

Follow Marco on Instagram: @maquirog

Marco Quiroga describes himself on twitter as “Gay, Undocumented and Unafraid,” Marco is known by many for three amazing years of work at Immigration Equality working on the front lines of our movement’s struggle for LGBTQ immigrant justice.

This year Marco began a new chapter as Director of Public Policy at the True Colors Fund, as he turns his attention to ending LGBT Youth Homelessness.  Find out more at truecolorsfund.org.

Lisbeth Melendez Rivera

Lisbeth Melendez Rivera
Lisbeth Melendez Rivera

Follow Lisbeth on Twitter at @buchadc

Lisbeth Melendez Rivera is the Religion and Faith Program’s Director of Latino and Catholic Initiatives at the Human Rights Campaign where she has worked on the A La Familia project.

Over the years Lisbeth has worked at many organizations in the movement including Freedom to Marry, NARAL, Family Equality Council and Now. And of course, Lisbeth did groundbreaking work at LLEGO the The National Latino/a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Organization where she served as Director of Community Education and Training.

Christopher Soto

Christopher Soto
Christopher Soto

Follow Christopher on twitter at @loma_poetry

Christoppher Soto (aka Loma) is an nationally recognized poet and activist. Their first chapbook “Sad Girl Poems” was published by Sibling Rivalry Press and tackles some tough topics like LGBTQ youth homelessness, Intimate Partner Violence, and suicide. Their work has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese.

They are currently working on a full-length poetry manuscript about police violence and mass incarceration. Originally from the Los Angeles area, Christopher now now resides in Brooklyn.  Visit Christopher’s website at christophersoto-poet.com.

Ruby Corado

Ruby Corado
Ruby Corado

Follow Ruby/Casa Ruby on twitter at: @CasaRubyDC

I’ve known Ruby Corado much longer than anyone on the list and if you’ve ever met Ruby, I’m sure you would agree with me when I say what I love most about her is her heart. Ruby was born in San Salvador, El Salvador. She fled a civil war when she was 16 years old.  Washington DC has been her home since then where she has been a tireless advocate for the entire LGBT community, but especially Trans, Genderqueer, and Gender Non-Conforming People and the Latino community.

The Casa Ruby community center opened it’s doors in June 2012 and has has met an important need in the community since that day. open to everyone but primarily serving the Latino LGBT community.  Find out more and learn how you can support Ruby at www.casaruby.org

Jack Harrison-Quintana

Jack Harrison Quintana
Jack Harrison Quintana

Follow Jack on twitter at: @jchq59

Follow Jack on instagram at: @jchq59

Jack Harrison-Quintana, M.A., is a queer Latino activist, demographer, and researcher currently serving as the director of Grindr for Equality. Prior to his current position, Jack worked for the National LGBTQ Task Force, the Global Trans Research and Advocacy Project (GTRAP), the National Center for Transgender Equality, and Khmera.

In 2010, he was a contributing author for Outing Age 2010: Public Policy Issues Affecting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Elders, and in 2011, he was a co-author of Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. His other work has addressed issues of sexual liberation, racial justice, post-colonial movement building, diaspora activism, and anti-genderqueer discrimination.

Ignacio Rivera

Ignacio Rivera
Ignacio Rivera

Follow Ignacio on twitter: @Papi_Coxxx

Much like Christopher Soto, the work of Ignacio Rivera blurs the lines between art and activism. Ignacio identifies as “Brooklyn, New York City born and raised Queer, Two-spirit, Black Boricua Taíno” who uses the gender-neutral pronoun they.

Ignacio is also one of the founding board member of Queers for Economic Justice; a progressive non-profit organization committed to promoting economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation.  And while this organization is no longer around, it had a profound impact on our movement, highlighting how LGBT folks living in poverty are affected by issues like welfare reform, homelessness and the shelter system.

These days Ignacio wears many, many hats.  They are a performance artist, activist, lecturer, and most recently a filmaker.  Learn more about Ignacio at their website, www.ignaciogrivera.com.

Latinx LGBT Activists to Watch
Latinx LGBT Activists to Watch

 

 

Bathroom Access and the Trans Community: What DC is Doing Right

Equal Bathroom Access for the Transgender Community

written by David Mariner and Holly Goldmann

A transgender women experiencing violence simply for using the restroom?   For those of us who have lived in DC for a while, we know the recent experience of Ebony Belcher at Giant Foods is nothing new.  Thankfully, it happens less often than it used to in the District, but it still happens.   In 2010 two transender Latina women in the Columbia Heights neighborhood were attacked after they had used a public restroom in a local business.   The suspect was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

Since that time (and many years before) DC activists have spent a lot of time working on “the bathroom issue.”  While it is frustrating to hear about what happened to Ebony, we can take solace in the fact that DC has made progress.  Most importantly, the police arrested the right person.   Affirming Ebony’s right to use the bathroom, the police arrested the security guard for the assault that occured when the guard tried to remove her from the bathroom.   Sadly, we know now there are many parts of the country where that would not have happened.

So how did we get to this point?   Here are some tipes on the progress we’ve made, and how we can move the ball even farther forward.

The local law is on our side.

The Human Rights law is clear as day in DC.  Transgender women are women, and transgender men are men.  Everyone, including genderqueer, gender non-binary or gender non-conforming folks, can use the bathroom they choose.

We also require single stall restrooms to be all-gender

Any business in the District of Columbia that has a single-stall restroom, is required to make that restroom gender-neutral (or all-gender).   Simply put, there is no reason to have a gender marker on a bathroom made for one person.   Having more all-gender restrooms in the city makes it easier, less stressful,and safer for trans and gender non-conforming folks to pee in peace.   If you happen to notice a restroom in a DC business that is non-compliant with this law, simply take a picture with your phone and tweet the information using hashtag #safebathroomsdc.  The Office of Human Rights will then follow up on that business.

The conversation does not begin or end in the bathroom.

In this moment where there is a national focus on the transgender community, it is important to expand the conversation beyond bathrooms.   The DC Office of Human Rights has recently documented the very real employment discrimination transgender individuals experience in the District.   The Equal Rights Center in DC has recently conducted a study documenting discrimination transgender women experience in retail settings.   The Washington DC Transgender Needs Assesment further documents numerous disparities and challenges faced by our local transgender community, and particularly transgender women of color.   Now is the time to shift the conversation so our communities better understand all of the challenges transgender individuals face.

What’s next?  All-Gender Restrooms in DC Government Building.

Finally, it’s important to notice that there is still much work to do on this issue. It is very disappointing that so few DC government buildings have all-gender restrooms.   The Reeves Center, a government building that houses both the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs as well as the DC Center for the LGBT Community, still does not have a permanent all-gender restroom.   This needs to change, but so do other government buildings.  In fact every large DC government building with more than 10 public restrooms, should have at least one dedicated all-gender restroom.  The work continues ….

Bathroom Access

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anti-Trans Discrimination in Retail Stores

Room for Change

A new report published by the Equal Rights Center takes a closer look at the discrimination transgender women face in retail stores.   The pilot project was conducted in DC, Maryland, and Virginia.  Utilizing ‘secret shoppers’, or ‘testers’, the study compared the experiences of transgender women and cisgender women.   Some of these tester pairs were African American and some of the pairs were White.   This made it possible to also see differences on treatment based on race.

The results will not be suprising to anyone who is familiar with the experiences of Transgender Women.

In 75% of the tests conducted, the transgender tester experienced at least one type of adverse differential treatment and service.  The adverse differential treatment included differences in the quality, quantity, and content of the service provided to the testers.

African American transgender testers faced higher rates of verbal harassment and other forms of negative interactions than their white peers.  In the jurisdictions with nondiscrimination protectiosn (DC, MD) the white transgender tester experienced significantly less negative interactions (19%) than the African American transgender tester (81%).  In the jurisdiction lacking nondiscrimination protections (VA) the African American transgender tester experienced a negative interaction in 57% of the tests, while the white transgender testers experiences negative interactions in 43% of the tests.

This study is a sobering reminder that legislation is needed at the federal level to prohibit public accomodation discriminationcbased on gender identity and expression.  Still, passing a law is a beginning, not an end.  As this study shows us this kind of discrimination continues even in a place like the District of Columbia, which has strong laws supporting the Transgender community.   Legislation has to be coupled with active enforcement of the law.  It is also crucial that retail employees are educated about the rights of their transgender community.  Further, it is crucial that transgender and gender variant indivduals themselves understand their rights and how to report discrimination when it happens.

Read the entire report here to learn more:

Download the Report

Room for Change: Understanding Discrimination against the Transgender Community in Retail Spaces

FDA Launches LGBT Youth Tobacco Prevention Campaign

LGBT Youth Tobacco Prevention Campaign - This Free Life

 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has officially launched their new This Free Life campaign to shift the conversation about smoking in the LGBT Community.  While smoking is an issue that is not often discussed in our community, it has a profound impact on our community, particularly when we are talking about LGBT Youth.

“We know LGBT young adults in this country are nearly twice as likely to use tobacco as other young adults, says Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.

On hand for the launch was Dr. Scout from Healthlink, a program of the CenterLink, the National Association of LGBT Community Centers.   Scout provided valuable information to the FDA on best practices with regards to reaching the LGBT Community and was one of many LGBT communty members who provided feedback on the campaign, which was market tested with over 1,000 LGBT Youth.

“There are a number of factors that contribute to the higher risk for tobacco use among LGBT young adults.  The coming out process is a unique tobacco-use risk factor for LGBT young adults due to the actual and perceived social stigma, discrimination and anxiety experienced during this process.  And data show that the coming out process faced by most LGBT young adults can lead to tobacco use and negative health consequences.

Research also indicates that many LGBT young adults can find a sense of community at LGBT bars and clubs which sometimes provides environments conducive to tobacco use.

“This Free Life” launches in 12 markets this week using print, digital and out-of-home ads, as well as outreach at the local level to showcase tobacco-free behaviors and attitudes within the LGBT Community.  The $35.7 million campaign is funded by user fees collected from the tobacco industry.

This Free Life
This Free Life