By Gus Ugalde
More than 40 Boyle Heights residents gathered earlier this month to share some of their unique issues associated with belonging to the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender community in the Latino culture.
The larger-than-expected crowd shared personal stories of how they coped with having family members, or close friends, “come out.”
Event coordinator, ‘Queen’ Victoria Ortega, helped organize the event held at Legacy L.A., a nonprofit youth development organization near the Ramona Gardens neighborhood. She said the event was designed to create awareness about the issues the LGBT community deals with on a daily basis.
Ortega shared her own personal story of growing up in the Wyvernwood Garden Apartments with a traditional Mexican father, as a boy who, as he grew older, realized he was a girl.
Ortega, who identifies as transgender, has cultivated a career in activism for the LGBT community, largely because of the struggles she experienced as a child.
“For me, my love in life has been to be able to articulate the plight of Latina transgender women in areas like Boyle Heights where you never hear anything about it,” said Ortega.