LGBT Awareness to Community & Familia

Cultural • May 14th, 13

Similar to the black community, the Hispanic and Latino community has struggled to understand and accept sexual and gender differences when it comes to the LGBT movement. The lack of Latino and Hispanic LGBT representation and visibility in media and entertainment has not helped the situation either. The white community has gained a better understanding of the LGBT community because of people who have brought awareness in that particular community to the media and entertainment world. This is something that has been a challenge in minority communities, but is starting to show some progress.

A campaign specifically geared toward the Latino and Hispanic community to raise awareness and educate the public regarding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) persons who are part of both communities has gained support this year from many leading Hispanic and Latino organizations. This campaign, “Familia es Familia” shows that people are aware that even though the LGBT community has had much success in the mainstream world, there are still obstacles within minority cultures to accept and be sensitive, embracing, and understanding of family members and friends who may identify as LGBT.

“Familia es Familia will be a bilingual campaign providing resources and information that are culturally appropriate to empower voices within and from Latino families and communities. In addition, the campaign will provide training, technical assistance, and support to the 21 Hispanic organizations and will spearhead a national effort to educate the public through a range of viral components including: an interactive bilingual website rich with videos, resources, and publications; social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube; promoting stories and voices in the media; and an organizing campaign to engage the community through their mobile devices.”

Many of the Hispanic and Latino organizations targeted for this campaign have found through research and studies that the population is more open to the LGBT community and this opportunity only helps to bring more education to the population to gain better involvement in equality and the LGBT movement for equal rights.

One way of bringing awareness and having role models to instill understanding and acceptance into the hearts of families and individuals is through popular entertainment for that particular community. We are a generation of people who are influenced by popular culture and it helps to have popular culture take the time to be aware of the lack of that representation and use resources available to work on making it better.

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