Queer Latinidad in U.S. Schools: A Community-Based Approach to Education and Outreach

• In Event: 72.039 - Queeruptions: Queer of Color Analysis as a Basis for Radical Action and Education Reform

Abstract

Queer Latina/o youth are the largest growing population of students in our schools, yet our laws and policies fail to properly address the complexities of the queer Latina/o youth experience. In California, where queer Latina/o youth make up the majority of the queer youth population, they experience higher levels of discrimination due to a lack of institutional, organization and structural support systems that consider their identity as queer and as people of color. The disconnect between educational policies and the day-to-day reality for queer Latina/o students necessitates a thorough examination of what works to raise the visibility of queer Latina/o youth on these issues and increase their safety and acceptance in Latina/o communities. The apparent split and limited understanding between queer youth policies/initiatives and the appropriate institutional, organization and structural support systems in place within Latina/o communities is a problem that needs to be better understood and fully examined. Therefore, we must look to the work being done by community groups and organizations supporting predominately Latina/o communities reach new levels of awareness of and understanding on queer youth issues.

In this paper, I discuss my collaborative work with the Promotoras of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles who teach “The LGBT Acceptance Project”. Taught in Spanish, this four-part curriculum engages Latina/o parents in queer topics by centralizing issues of oppression and marginalization that take into account the intersectional forms of discrimination queer Latina/o youth experience. The end goal of workshop series is to teach parents how they can become advocates and allies and support queer Latina/o youth in their communities. To date the Promotoras have taught this curriculum at over 100 schools and community centers across Los Angeles and reached close to 3,000 parents. The work of the Promotoras provides on example for how schools, practitioners and community-based organizations can build grassroots support as well as create/enforce school policies related to queer and gender nonconforming youth that are authentic to the Latina/o immigrant experience. Their work also contributes to the emerging body of scholarship on queer of color critique in education by providing one example of queer of color pedagogy and activism that focuses on the queer Latina/o experience.

Author

• Rigoberto Marquez, Stanford University