Community that first emerged in 1982 has made big gains
of late, but there's still plenty of work to be done

Dallas' LGBT Latinos have been in the public eye more frequently in the last couple of years because of the recent formation of two Latino groups Valiente DFW and LULAC Council 4871 and because of the election of Latina lesbian Sheriff Lupe Valdez and the election of Jesse Garcia as president of one of Dallas' strongest political power groups, the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas.

All this recent GLBT Latino visibility is really impressive considering that this strong political showing has all been accomplished in just a couple of years.

But a look back at Dallas' GLBT Latino community shows a history that started in 1982 with the establishment of the Hispanic Task Force, a committee of the Dallas Gay Alliance.

Reymundo Anthony was one of the first gay Latinos on the DGA Board of Directors. He created the Hispanic Task Force in an effort to engender more Hispanic representation in the DGA and involvement in Dallas' GLBT civil rights movement. There was immediate interest in the HTF because Hispanics had no community organizations at this time.

As a committee of the DGA, the HTF members had to go through the DGA board to get funds and hold events. Because HTF members wanted autonomy, they soon disbanded the task force and created instead the Gay & Lesbian Hispanic Coalition of Dallas.

Jose Plata, who was later to become Dallas' first openly gay school board member, actively assisted and encouraged the coalition. And it was not unusual to have Latino political icons like City Councilman Ricardo Medrano and his brother, DISD Trustee Robert Medrano attending the coalition's get-togethers and receptions.

Ricardo Medrano even appointed coalition members to various city of Dallas boards and commissions.

The coalition built an alliance with Texas' first gay Latino group in Houston, the Gay Hispanic Caucus. Those two organizations worked together to help form groups in Austin, San Antonio and El Paso. We held state GLBT Latino conferences in Houston and Austin and formed Texas' first state GLBT Latino initiative, called the Gay & Lesbian Tejanos.

But by late 1980s the coalition along with all the GLBT Latino groups in Texas except the one in Austin sort of faded away. It wasn't because of infighting and disagreements, but because AIDS and burnout took their toll on the leadership.

In the mid- to late 1980s, Dallas' first Latino gay bar, Bamboleo's, opened. This really brought Latinos together, especially immigrants, because Bamboleo's was a place where Latinos no longer needed to have multiple IDs to get into a club in the gayborhood.

Then in 1993, I began hosting and producing Sin Fronteras, the country's first one-hour gay Latino radio show. Sin Fronteras went on the air in July 1993 on KNON 89.3 FM. It began with community interviews on GLBT Latino issues and HIV/AIDS prevention, but changed format because listeners wanted music and entertainment.

Because Sin Fronteras was broadcast in a combination of English and Spanish and because it had a straight-friendly format, it became popular and was awarded an additional hour of air time each week. That gave the GLBT Latino community more time on air than Lambda Weekly, the pioneer in GLBT radio.

Shortly thereafter, Lesbians Latinas de Dallas was created by and for Latina lesbians. No one seemed to care that the group allowed only female members, though males often participated in various activities.

But like the rest of the Latino groups of the 1980s this organization also sort of just faded away after a couple of years.

The decline of GLBT groups during that time is understandable, considering it was before the Internet became widely available and made staying in touch and organizing much easier and more convenient.

Two more milestones in the Dallas' GLBT Latino community's history have been the election of two openly gay Latino men to the Dallas City Council. Chris Luna and John Loza both made their marks on city politics, even though they were not on the council at the same time.

Despite the gains and the milestones through the years, the one thing lacking in my community then and now is a GLBT Latino journalist that can speak with and through two cultures, someone that can see life outside the gayborhood and into the barrio as well. So I think it's time to once again advocate for another GLBT Latino radio show. Radio is a way of reaching many low to moderate income GLBT Latinos, most especially the immigrants, many of whom don't have computers or access to the Internet.

Though bars cannot ask for three picture IDs, discrimination still exists. It is just more covert today. The fight for equality for all even within the LGBT community continues today.

We have come and gone and come back again. GLBT Latinos once again have high visibility and more political clout. We also now have four clubs to fit the diversity within our community.

We are having our voices heard.

Though there may be similarities with today's GLBT Latino activist groups and those of the past, this time it looks like we have endurance.

Jesús Chaírez has been a Latino LGBT community activist for 28 years. He is the bilingual emcee for the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade, a member of the board of radio station KNON 89.3 FM and a community opinion writer for The Dallas Morning News.

E-mail chairezstudio@gmail.com

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 18, 2008