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SOUTHERN VOICE OCTOBER 2 1/19 9 3'
Author Francisco X. Alarcon invokes the four directions in his dedication of Encuentro
National, the second annual conference of the National Latino/a Lesbian and Gay
Organization, held Oct. 7-11 in San Jose, California.
Gay/lesbian latinos hold conference
San Jose, CA—A piece of happy news
buoyed the second annual Encuentro National,
the yearly conference of the National Latino/a
Lesbian and Gay Organization (LLEGO), held
Oct. 7-11 in San Jose, when word came from the
federal Centers for Disease Control and Preven
tion that the group stands to receive an AIDS
prevention grant of at least $300,000, the first
federal monies specifically targeting gay and
lesbian latinos.
But there was frustration and some anger as.
well—at the continuing snuggle to gain recog
nition within the broader latino and lesbian/gay
civil rights movements and at the growing anti
immigrant sentiment being stirred up by politi
cians in California and across the country.
The exact amount of the CDC grants
(LLEGO had requested $600,000) will be worked
out in negotiations that were set to begin Oct.
19. The money will be used to provide naming
and technical assistance to local gay and lesbian
latino groups doing AIDS prevention work in
their own communities. According to Martin
Ornelas, LLEGO’s development co-chair, bar
ring unforeseen snags, the grant should be in
place for the start of the 1994 fiscal year, which
begins Nov. 1.
“This should have happened years ago,” com
mented LLEGO acting co-chair Mario Solis-
Marich, noting that despite rising numbers of
cases of HIV infection and full-blown AIDS
among latinos, particularly among gays and bi
sexuals, the federal government has never tar
geted funding to reach gay and bisexual latinos—
and just a handful of gay latino groups across
the country have gotten state or local funding.
To help strengthen the oftcn-wcak infrastruc
ture of these local agencies, Solis-Marich said,
“We’re going to actually go down and roll up
oursleeves...and help them build their programs.”
The federal money should also give LLEGO
new influence at the national level. “This means
when there are policy discussions in Washing
ton, we’ll be there,” Solis-Marich noted. “This
is our seat at the table.”
But despite the happy news from the CDC,
the conference was also marked by a continuing
sense that the issues that affect gay and lesbian
latinos get little attention from either the major
gay and lesbian civil rights organizations or main
stream latino groups.
According to Jose Solis and Roberto Jimenez
of Somos Orgullo Latinos (SOL) in Portland,
Ore., their group formed after right-wing funda
mentalists had some success in targeting the
latino community during the recent campaigns
over anti-gay ballot initiatives. Non-gay latino
groups showed little interest, Solis commented,
and even “some hostility,” though the hostility
for the most part came out in subtle ways. The
situation was worsened, he added, because “we
were not visible in the gay community” md
existing gay and lesbian groups were ill-equipped
to respond to the right-wing attacks.
Many expressed a sense of feeling left out of
the national gay and lesbian agenda. One ex
ample of this, explained Letitia Gomez,
LLEGO’s acting executive director, is the heavy
emphasis by national gay and lesbian groups
during the last year on the effort to lift the ban on
lesbians and gay in the military. In a survey
taken by LLEGO at a gathering the group hosted
during the March on Washington, the military
issue ranked “seventh or eighth” among pos
sible priorities, Gomez noted. “There just wasn’t
a high degree of interest. People didn’t feel like
it was our issue.”
Jorge Cortinas, program director for the In
ternational Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Com
mission, put it even more strongly during the
conference’s closing session. “We arc wrong,”
he declared to loud and enthusiastic applause,
“to jump on the anglo-lcd bandwagon to gain
admission as lesbian and gay people to the armed
forces of the United States. Arc we prepared to
patrol the border with Mexico with the National
Guard? Arc we prepared to shoot down our
lesbian and gay compancras and compancros
the next time we invade Panama or Nicaragua,
or even Cuba?”
Cortinas’ reference to patrolling the Mexi
can border touched a theme that recurred repeat
edly over the weekend—a deep and growing
concern over the anti-immigrant sentiment, tar
geted primarily at undocumented immigrants
from Mexico and Central America, being stirred
up by politicians in California and elsewhere.
Many noted that leaving undocumented immi
grants out of any national health care plan, as the
Clinton health care proposal does, will leave an
enormous gap in AIDS care and prevention ef
forts.
Particular venom was reserved for liberal
politicians such as California’s U.S. Sen. Dianne
Feinstcin, up for re-election in 1993, who have
jumped on the anti-immigrant bandwagon. And
with it came a not-too-subtle warning to anglo
gay and lesbian groups who have supported them.
“It’s going to be interesting,” declared Solis-
Marich, “to see Dianne Feinstcin raising money
from white gay and lesbians as she does so on
the bodies of gay latino immigrants with AIDS.”
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