"Familia Es Familia" Campaign Spotlights Family Ties for LGBT Latinos

This past weekend, Familia Es Familia, a bilingual education campaign highlighting the importance of family ties when discussing LGBT issues in the Latino community, was unveiled at the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR).

Twenty-one national Latino organizations have pledged their support of the effort, including the Hispanic National Bar Association, the National Hispanic Council on Aging and the National Hispanic Media Coalition. Familia Es Familia is an initiative that is heavily aligned with Lambda Legal’s Proyecto Igualdad.

Francisco Dueñas, Proyecto Igualdad Coordinator for Lambda Legal, says:

Discussing LGBT issues using a bilingual approach is essential in efforts to reach communities filled with cultural intersections. Not only do bilingual education efforts provide points of entry to the conversation, they also emphasize core values that all families share—the importance of familial bonds and the idea that love is the bridge from hesitance to acceptance.

We are all intersections of multiple identities. Whether we were born in the United States and have immigrant parents, or identify as Latino, Hispanic or bicultural, whether we consider ourselves religious or not—campaigns like this tell the real story of support for LGBT people within the Latino community. By underscoring the importance of family ties and highlighting the deep commitment Latino communities have for their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and extended family members, an LGBT person can find support within their family, if they haven’t already.