Minorities within the GLBT minority

The Weekly News
By Andrea Freygang - Contributing Writer

The Rev. Tommie Watkins Jr., an African-American ordained minister, has found his community to be unaccepting of gays. As a proponent of AIDS ministries in his church - he is convinced HIV/AIDS will not be properly dealt with until the church addresses it - he's found it very hard to get the community to open its eyes, accept gays and accept the current AIDS situation. They even assume because he's gay and wants to talk about HIV, that he is positive; but Watkins says he doesn't have to have HIV in order to educate about it.

"The AIDS rate in the African-American culture is one in 46 blacks have HIV, and one in three gay black males are infected," Watkins says. "I've been trying to work with the black churches to build, fund and sustain their own HIV ministries.

"It's not just a gay disease, and even if they don't agree, they need to leave their options open," he continues. "With people of color - Asian, Hispanic, Afro-Caribbean, etc. - the church is one of the most influential aspects of their culture.

"There's some that even believe - because they don't trust the government - that AIDS is manufactured by the government. When the pastors are silent because they don't want to talk about sex, sexuality, and orientation, it keeps a lot of misinformation [out there] about AIDS and about gay culture."

Denial and the spread of misinformation seem to be a trend in several communities of color when it comes to discussions of AIDS and/or sexual orientation. What does it mean to be a minority with the GLBT minority?

Nick Chow, 21, is Chinese, and says the Asian community avoids talking about it as well, standing firmly in the belief that one's obligation in life is to marry and bring up a family - regardless of sexual orientation. His traditional Chinese mother ignores his sexuality and refuses to discuss it; his father is more accepting, but expressed concerns about AIDS, which Chow says hasn't hit China hard yet.

He also says that "there's a strong sex stigma in China, and they don't discuss the issues, even about relationships."

"Although there are not a lot of gay Asians in Miami, I've been fortunate to have good role models," Chow says. "I tried to get involved with a local Asian group, but it seemed like a bunch of Asian guys and their Rice Queen (older,

But Chow is proud to be out, and says the perceptions need to be changed because being gay is not a choice.

"You can choose to be out, but you can't choose to be gay," he says. "The little bit of coverage we get in mainstream media helps to show we're out there, but it needs to become more of a discussion.

"In mainstream media, you don't see many gay Asians either - I can't think of a single one. We're not at all represented."

Working for minority voices
"From a GLBT standpoint, African-Americans, Asians and Latinos don't have leadership, particularly at a national level," says Monica Taher, People of Color Media Director at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. "People of color lack resources to combat homophobia, especially because each community has individual nuances in how gays are perceived.

"Most of the reports and information are monolingual, and the minorities are not visible," she continues. "As the People of Color Media Director, I work in-depth on programs to help raise awareness, help educate, and make sure there is fair and accurate inclusion."

Taher says that while most communities tend to exclude gays, the Native American community embraces homosexuals.

But Richard LaFortune, a member of the Yupik tribe (Eskimo) and the grand marshal for the Minneapolis, Minn., gay Pride event, says that ever since the colonists arrived and pillaged America, homophobia has begun to seep into their community.

"For thousands of years, we've had three or four or more genders in our culture and community," he says. "The colonists brought violence, open warfare, sterilization of women, and discrimination - a horrible pestilence of homophobia by very homophobic and sex-phobic Christian policies and judicial system. It's sad that the last remaining superpower is repressive and is in punish and restrict mode, and it is especially felt by the two-spirit community because homophobia is an alien concept to our culture.

"We just have to continue to share information with our two-spirit community," he continues, "And have a full participation in the community, retaining a full knowledge of what gives us a distinct identity; but we also need to realize that before we are GLBT, we are citizens of a sovereign nation."

How many?
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the United States has almost 300 million people who have to find a way to live with each other. Almost 700,000 households nationwide contain same-sex couples according to the Census (well over a million identified gay and lesbian adults).

In Florida alone, there are almost 18 million people. Almost seven million of them live in South Florida, with almost 15,000 identified same-sex households (almost 30,000 identified gay and lesbian adults). Eight percent of these 15,000 households reported containing different races and 15 percent are Hispanic (All data U.S. Census 2000)

A recently released National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Hispanic/Latino study said that 9,000 same-sex households identified as having at least one Hispanic/Latino member.

William Villanueva, 22, a Miami-based Puerto Rican who came out during high school, said his experience wasn't too bad, although some people acted differently around him, including teachers. He says Latinos don't accept gays very well. His mom denies his orientation, and he hasn't told his father yet.

"Miami is very mixed - some are cool about it and others are against it, but the younger generation seems to be more accepting," Villanueva says. "Haitians don't accept it - and include that sentiment in their music.

"But a gay person is a gay person - no matter if they are black, white, Hispanic, Haitian, whatever. Miami is so mixed, and a lot less segregated, so I don't really see any concerns because I live a normal life."

Spearheading a movement to unite the Latin and other minorities in the Greater Miami area is Herb Sosa, a Cuban American. Sosa is the founder and director of Unity Coalition, "a nonprofit grassroots initiative created to offer leadership on issues that concern Latino/Hispanic LGBTQ and other minority groups in Florida, the Caribbean and Latin America." Unity acts as an empowerment agency or referral service, focusing on immigration, family concerns, lobbying in Tallahassee, HIV/AIDS and cultural/religious influences.

Sosa says there's a lot of discrimination from within the communities because of misconceptions, and is firm in his belief that denying it won't make it go away.

"We need education within the communities to break the stereotypes," he says. "Hispanics already understand discrimination. So, we need to educate.

"Signs posted need to be in three languages - English, Creole, and Spanish - when it's an HIV/AIDS sign with hotline numbers so we can get the right information out to the public."

Sosa reaches out on a national level with Unity, and recently collaborated with The Task Force to present the results of the Hispanic/Latino Same-Sex Households Study at a press conference in Miami (see March 8 issue at twnonline.org for more information).

At this press conference, the Woolley-Larreas came forward and identified themselves as a same-sex couple with two-year-old triplets.

The Woolley-Larreas' life came undone when they had to move to Massachusetts while maintaining a home in Florida just to be recognized as a family. They spent tens of thousands of dollars and dealt with the emotional stress while juggling three newborn kids - with no insurance or social security benefits to provide for Stephanie (a full-time stay-at-home mom) if something happened to Maria, the breadwinner.

"These are my children," says Maria. "Even though Stephanie is the birth mom, my emotional ties are very strong and to live in fear that they can be taken away because I'm gay is horrible.

"But we teach the kids about all kinds of families," she says, "and we're teaching them to be bi-literate and bilingual."

Maria, a refugee who escaped from Cuba because of the totalitarian government and lack of freedoms, says it's hard coming out in the Latin community because they don't even say lesbian, but "the l word."

She makes a plea for fellow Latin gays and lesbians to come out like she has. "I'm proud of my family, and I'm proud to be Latin and I hope to pass this on to my kids," Maria says. "Being gay is only part of who I am, and no, I don't have a choice - but I do have the right to be as happy as you do."