A place to be proud

McAllen’s Cordoba Cafe holds PRIDE event

Note: This article originally appeared in The Pan American's website June 28, 2014. The Pan American was the student newspaper at my former university, The University of Texas - Pan American, where I got into writing. Ultimately, TPA was shut down as a result of a merger with neighboring university to make way for The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and the new student publication did not transfer anything from TPA. Here's one of my articles for them that was saved thanks to the miracle of Google Docs.

After a brief hesitation, UTPA student Samantha Herrera takes a quick breath to compose herself, then begins telling the audience at the patio of McAllen’s Cordoba Cafe of her coming out experience.

“My aunt and uncle, who I was living with at the time in Edinburg, were Baptist ministers so I wasn’t going to tell them,” the 22-year-old English major said to the hushed crowd June 22. “I didn’t feel safe to tell anyone about my identity as a queer woman until I went away from home to Michigan for my freshman year of college.”

This was the scene at the LGBT Pride Speak-Out event, which took place at 1303 N. 10th St. The function was hosted by several UTPA organizations including UTPA’s Feminist Club, which Herrera is a member of.  The gathering was held in June to commemorate Pride Month, a month-long celebration to honor the 1969 Stonewall Riots. According to the Library of Congress, the Stonewall Riots were a series of protests at a Manhattan gay bar following a police raid, and the event is considered to be a major tipping point in the fight for LGBT equality.

The LGBT Pride Speak-Out included a viewing of the film Antes Dios, Todos Somos Familia, or Before God, We Are All a Family. The 2013 film consists of interviews with several openly gay Catholic LGBT members and their families who talk about how they balance their religion and their sexuality. Following the viewing was an “open mic,” where audience members were invited to take the stage and talk about their experiences with homosexuality.

For Herrera, the open mic was the first time she had come out publicly, an experience she said was as scary as it was empowering. She was motivated to do so to celebrate her identity and inspire others to do the same.

“We don’t come out just once. First, we have to come out to ourselves, then to our family and friends, then we have to do it whenever someone asks us,” she explained. “As long as we create a space where we’re proud of ourselves, then I’m going to keep doing it.”

The UTPA chapter of the Texas Freedom Network  helped organize LGBT Pride Speak-Out. Texas Freedom Network is a liberal organization whose members seek to protect individual liberties and religious freedom. Ruben Garza, a field organizer for the group, was on hand at the event.

“We’re trying to get the message across that there’s a community of acceptance right here in the (Rio Grande) Valley, especially since down here it’s a predominant Catholic and ‘machismo’ culture,” said the 2013 UTPA Mexican-American studies and political science alumnus. “We want to create a space of understanding, unity, acceptance and visibility, especially since some events happening [in Texas] may not inspire hope for LGBT citizens.”

The Edinburg native was referring to several events that happened in Texas this past month that have gained national attention. These include a family court judge in Tarrant County, located in Fort Worth, denying parental rights to the biological twin boys of a homosexual couple, as well as the Texas Republican Party recently voting to adopt a platform that supports “reparative therapy” for gays.

Reparative therapy, otherwise known as “conversion therapy” according to the American Psychiatric Association, is a form of treatment that seeks to convert homosexuals to heterosexuality. The APA and other organizations oppose this therapy because it is based on the assumption that homosexuality is a mental disorder, or that people can change their orientation, which the APA declassified in 1974.

According to The Washington Post, since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that denied federal recognition to married same-sex couples last year, seven more states have legalized same-sex marriage. This has raised the number total number of states that recognize same-sex unions to 19. The rest of the 31 states have a same-sex marriage ban and have pending lawsuits challenging the ruling as unconstitutional, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

After the event, which had approximately 25 attendees, Garza admitted that there was a missed opportunity due to the video screening and its intended audience.

“Most of the attendees were college-aged students who may have probably severed all ties with the church,” he said. “We wanted to invite several people, including the older generation, to make the movie relatable to them since they went through the same thing as the parents in the film, but we can always improve that for our next event.”

Lorena Singh, a community advocate for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, also attended the open mic. She quoted a 2009 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that surveyed 7,000 13 to 21-year-old LGBT students and the violent experiences they’ve faced because of their sexual orientation. According to the study, one in five LGBT students is a victim of physical assault in school.

“We need to be able to do better than this,” the 43-year-old UTPA alumna said. “We need to show the LGBT youth that they do have support available and they should never have to be afraid just because of who they are.”

Other Pride events included the third annual Pride March hosted by the campus group the UTPA LGBT alliance. The march was held Friday, June 27 in the C-1 parking lot at UTPA at 5:30 p.m.