Queer Brown Voices

Made possible with support from the Mayor's Office of Latino Affairs Join us for a conversation with contributors to Queer Brown Voices, featuring Leti Gomez, Salvador Vidal-Ortiz, Laura Esquivel, Moises Agosto, and Jose Gutierrez. The conversation will be moderated by Lizbeth Melendez Rivera. This event is made possible in part thanks to the Mayor's Office on Latino Affairs. Letitia Gomez, better known as Leti, came to Washington in 1987 for the second lesbian and gay national march, and stayed. For two decades she has been creating support organizations and a political role for Latino/a gays and lesbians. Gomez is also known for her health care advocacy for lesbians and her involvement in HIV/AIDS community support and education. She was part of the founding of both the National Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization (LLEGO) and Washington's own ENLACE, a support organization for gay Latinos and Latinas. Gomez's involvement with health advocacy and AIDS created demand for her services. She was elected to the AIDS Action Foundation's Board of Directors, served on Whitman-Walker Clinic's community advisory board for the Lesbian Services Program. She is currently a board member of Whitman-Walker Clinic. Having lived so much of the community's history, she is actively supporting its preservation. Salvador Vidal-Ortiz (Ph.D.) is associate professor in the sociology department at American University (AU), in Washington, DC; he also teaches for their Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program. Aside from dozens of articles, chapters, special essays, and reviews, he has coedited two books: The Sexuality of Migration: Border Crossings and Mexican Immigrant Men (NYU Press, 2009) and Queer Brown Voices: Personal Narratives of Latina/o LGBT Activism (University of Texas Press, 2015). Among his current projects, in addition to his Fulbright-based research on forced migration/internal displacement and LGBT Colombians, he is now engaged in a new project, with Juliana Martínez, also from AU, on “Transgendering Human Rights: Lessons from Latin America.” Within the non-profit world, he volunteered and worked for several community mobilization groups such as The National Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization, a national philanthropic foundation called The Funding Exchange, and many AIDS service organizations in his native Puerto Rico, and in Washington, D.C. He also has consulted for government units including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (as presenter and grant reviewer), and the U.S. Health and Human Services - Office of HIV/AIDS Policy (on applying community-based research methods for rapid assessment of HIV in communities of color). In the past, he has supported DC community-based groups such as Different Avenues and the Latino GLBT History Project. Moises Agosto is a longtime advocate and educator in the field of HIV/AIDS and currently serves as the director of the treatment education, adherence and mobilization division of the National Minority AIDS Council in Washington, D.C. Prior to his role at NMAC, Agosto was a program manager for the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, a program of the Tides Center, where he was responsible for program and grant-making activities in the Caribbean region, Latin America and East Africa. Before working for ITPC, he was vice president and managing director of Community Access, a company of the Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, served as editor of SIDAahora magazine, a publication of the People With AIDS Coalition in New York, and was an active member of ACT UP New York. Additionally, Agosto has served on numerous government, industry and community advisory boards. He resides in San Juan, Puerto Rico. José Gutierrez is an activist, Latino LGBT historian, poet and leather enthusiast who resides in Washington D.C. and is originally from Reynosa, Mexico. His family immigrated to Atlanta, GA in the mid 1980’s where he launched his advocacy career working for AID Atlanta. In 1993, Jose attended the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation which prompted his move to Washington, DC and the start of his advocacy work in the nation’s capital. Jose is recognized for his work on human rights and AIDS advocacy both locally and nationally. In 2000 he founded the Latino GLBT History Project and consequently the DC Latino Pride. He also co-founded the Rainbow History Project and Diccion Queer. Serving as the International Leather boy in 2002 he was integral in raising awareness and funds for the leather community. In March 2004 he published the bilingual poetry book: AIDS in My Letters- El SIDA de mis letras. In 2014 he received the Jose Sarria medal of honor from the DC Imperial Court and in 2015 contributed to the book Queer Brown Voices, with an essay entitled “We must preserve our Latino LGBTQ history”. Currently Jose is pursuing his BS in psychology at the University Ana G. Mendez and works as a Medical Case Manager at the Family and Medical Counseling Services, Inc. In March 2004, Jose Guitierrez published a bilingual poetry book entitled AIDS in My Letters-El SIDA de mis letras, and has sought to raise money and awareness through his work as the International Leatherboy 2002. He is the founder and president of the Latino GLBT History Project. In 2007 He organized the first DC Latino Pride “20 Años de Lucha!- 20 Years of Struggle!” which highlighted the history and contributions of the DC Latino LGBTQ community and attracted more than 250 people. Jose has been presenting and coordinating bilinguals presentations, forums and historic exhibits about the DC Latino LGBTQ community since April 2000. He has been a contributor for the LGBT Latino magazine Adelante.