5 Queer Latinx Icons to Celebrate This Hispanic Heritage Month

By Autumn Rendall

It’s time to give credit where credit is due. The modern-day LGBTQ-rights movement would be nowhere without the tireless efforts of the powerful and resilient queer Latinx activists who fought—and continue to fight—for LGBTQ people’s freedom to exist. Throughout history, these movers and shakers have made extraordinary strides to improve the state of trans rights, criminal justice, HIV advocacy, gender equality, and more.

Yet, there is more work to be done. Over one fifth of Americans who identify as LGBTQ are Latinx, according to the Williams Institute. Despite this visibility, however, queer Latnix folks still experience a myriad of discrimination-based issues. As we mark National Hispanic Heritage Month this September 15 through October 15, we celebrate the inspiring voices that came before us and reflect on the necessary fight that still lies ahead.

Trans Rights and Inclusion

Sylvia Rivera, 1951–2002

Sylvia Rivera was a transgender woman and activist best known for her involvement in the 1969 Stonewall uprising. Her lifelong fight for transgender and gay rights helped pave the way for modern LGBTQ rights. 

Rivera fought against the exclusion of transgender people from the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, a New York law which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, credit, and the exercise of civil rights. “We didn’t take no shit from nobody,” Rivera said. “We had nothing to lose. You all had rights. We had nothing to lose. I’ll be the first one to step on any organization, any politician’s toes if I have to, to get the rights for my community.”

Rivera, along with fellow trans activist Marsha P. Johnson, also founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), which provided housing and support to homeless queer youth and sex workers in Lower Manhattan. 

Queer Political Power and Justice Against Police Brutality

José Julio Sarria, 1922–2013

José Julio Sarria was a political activist, longtime drag performer, and a veteran who served in Germany in World War II. After the war, he had planned to become a teacher, but he fell in love with performing drag. In the early 1960s, as San Francisco’s political environment struggled with the fact of its gay community, Saria stepped up and became the first openly gay person to run for public office, seeking a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. “I was angry, and I did it to prove a point,” Sarria said of his run for office. “That I had a right to run for office and that I didn’t have to hide. I never hid anything.”

What started as Sarria making political jokes during his performances grew into full-fledged activism. In a time when there was significant police harassment toward the LGBTQ community, Sarria encouraged his crowds to be proud of who they were and to stand up in the face of hate. 

Sarria also founded what’s now the International Court System, an association of charitable organizations that raises money primarily for gay causes. They have over 65 chapters in the United States, Canada, and Mexico and have become one of the largest LGBTQ organizations in the world.

HIV/AIDS Advocacy

Ray Navarro, 1964–1990

Ray Navarro was a member of the direct action AIDS-advocacy organization ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and co-founded the Latino Caucus of ACT UP in New York. 

Navarro was also a filmmaker, video artist, and founder of DIVA-TV, which produced performance art and documentary media pieces in support of ACT UP. In the late ‘80s, Navarro famously participated in an ACT UP demonstration at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York to protest Cardinal John O’Connor’s response to AIDS.

“There is a force within society that cannot be contained. Call it Queer Theory,” Navarro said. “Clearly no one could have predicted the visual representation of this theory.”

Feminism and Latinx Racism

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa 1942–2004

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa was an internationally recognized cultural scholar of Chicana theory, queer theory, and feminist theory. Anzaldúa’s semi-autobiographical book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza consists of prose and poems detailing the invisible “borders” that exist between Latinx and non-Lantinx people, genders, sexualities, and other groups. 

Her writings draw on her experiences as a lesbian, a Chicana, an activist, and a native of the border town of Harlingen, Texas. “Borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them,” Anzaldúa writes in Borderlands/La Frontera. “A border is a dividing line, a narrow strip along a steep edge. A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. It is in a constant state of transition. The prohibited and forbidden are its inhabitants.”

Anzaldúa does not shy away from topics such as sexual violence against women of color, racial and queer discrimination, and her life as a Chicana feminist in her writing, either. “I will have my serpent’s tongue—my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice,” she wrote. “I will overcome the tradition of silence.”

HIV/AIDS  and Language Justice

Dennis deLeon, 1948–2009

Dennis deLeon was the president of the Latino Commission on AIDS and helped grow the organization to what it is today. He helped translate HIV information into Spanish, worked with Spanish-speaking churches to build a network of AIDS prevention programs, and brought the organization from a staff of 5 to 45. 

DeLeon was also New York City’s human rights commissioner in 1990. When he disclosed his HIV status in 1993, he became one of the first New York City officials to do so. “Often, the person is transferred into a meaningless position, passed over for advancement or fired,” deLeon said. “Such treatment is often made to appear superficially legitimate but is frequently revealed through investigation to be based on discrimination. Why should I put up with this?”

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Remembering the powerful strides of the Latinx LGBTQ community is one of the many reasons why National Hispanic Heritage Month is essential to honor. Marginalized communities must stand together and support one another, just as these icons did during their lives. Though the fight for equality and inclusion is certainly not over, there are countless strong, hard-working, and fearless Latinx activists making history every day.