Holding Each Other: Queer Latinx Youth, Community Care, and Resistance in Post-Pulse Florida

• In Event: Sociology of Sexualities Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 5: Sexuality, Belonging, and Community

Abstract

This project examines how queer Latinx young adults in the greater Orlando, Florida area, and the community organizations that support them, navigate identity, belonging, safety, and community care amid heightened anti-queer and anti-immigrant policies, racialized hostility, ongoing political repression, and the enduring legacy of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting. In the early hours of June 12, 2016, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history at the time occurred during “Latin Night” at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, a space that symbolized joy, safety, and belonging for queer Latinx communities. Orlando and the surrounding region serve as a vital site for this work: the site of devastating anti-queer violence, a region of rapid Latinx population growth, a political epicenter where debates about race, sexuality, and belonging converge, and a site of profound hope. Few studies have examined how queer Latinxs negotiate compounded forms of marginalization and violence, and construct systems of care and resilience in the wake of trauma, exclusion, and structural barriers. This project centers their voices, investigating how queer Latinx young adults, coming of age in the sociopolitical aftermath of Pulse, navigate everyday life under intensified scrutiny and hostility.

Author

• Stephanie A. Dhuman, Hamilton College