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El/La Para TransLatinas is a non-profit organization that provides legal, fiscal, educational, health, and other services to transgender Latinas. [1] [2] The organization was founded in San Francisco, California, in 2006. [2] [1]
El/La Para TransLatinas emerged in 2006 after the closure of Proyecto ContraSIDA por Vida and has since then continued their work in accordance with their mission statement of "[building] a world where translatinas feel they deserve to protect, love and develop themselves. By building this base, we support each other in protecting ourselves against violence, abuse and illness." [3] Initially, El/La Para TransLatinas started as an HIV prevention organization for the LGBT community. Marcia Ochoa, Alexandra Rodriguez de Ruiz, and Isa Noyola are credited as the founders of El/La Para TransLatinas. [4] [1] As of May 2019 [update] , the interim executive director is Maritza Penagos. [5]
In 2009, El/La Para TransLatinas was severely underfunded as they had lost much of their government funding because the city of San Francisco instead began allocating El/La's money towards Instituto Familiar de la Raza Inc. [6] They eventually found a way to receive the funding back, but ran into financial problems in 2013. [7] El/La was seeking an additional $80,000 from the city of San Francisco, "in order to hire a full-time case manager and expand the work it is doing around the domestic violence that trans Latinas experience." [7] However, later that year they won a grant of $200,000 from the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. [1]
El/La Para TransLatinas continues their HIV and AIDS prevention efforts and have collaborated with organizations like Native American AIDS Project and Mobilization against AIDS. [6] [1] El/La provides transgender Latinas with, "support and referrals for immigration, housing, name changes, and other services. Many of El/La's clients speak only Spanish and have sought asylum in the United States because of transphobic violence in their home countries – primarily Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean." [6] Many transgender Latinas are afraid to seek the authorities or any government resources because of their legal status and fear of facing more harassment. [8] El/La aims to create a safe space where transgender Latinas "feel comfortable talking about any violent experiences and also case management." [9]
They also provide anti-violence resources as their 2013 $200,000 grant was awarded to fund their anti-violence efforts. [8] The organization planned on using this grant in order to train "luchadoras" fight against transphobic crimes and intimate partner violence. [8]
In 2015, El/La fundraised money for the funeral of outreach coordination and transgender activist Joana Luna and created an altar in their office space for her. [10]
On Friday June 26, 2015, El/La Para TransLatinas worked with the San Francisco Trans March for their 12th annual Trans March. [11] Additionally the organization was featured in a news segment by the popular US-based Latino and Spanish TV channel, Univision on November 19, 2015. [12] This marked a significant step as they were acknowledged as a legitimate organization by the conservative Latino community. A significant feature found within the organization's website is the presence of both English and Spanish in each individual section. This feature was highlighted within the article "Trans Latinas: You're not your mother's little boy anymore" [13] from a Berkeley journalism article from UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, wherein the issue of a language barrier is brought up.
In 2017, El/La Para TransLatinas was nominated for the award Organization Grand Marshal which is recognized in San Francisco's Annual Pride Parade. [14] This award nominates people and organizations that have made significant contributions in the LGBT community. [15] The winner of the Organization Grand Marshal is selected by the public via online voting. [15]
In 2013, El/La Para TransLatinas was recognized and awarded a $200,000 grant by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission for their anti-violence work. [1]
Transphobia consists of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger towards people who do not conform to social gender roles. Transphobia is a type of prejudice and discrimination, similar to racism, sexism, or ableism, and it is closely associated with homophobia. Transgender people of color can experience many different forms of discrimination simultaneously.
The San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Celebration, usually known as San Francisco Pride, is a pride parade and festival held at the end of June most years in San Francisco, California, to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their straight allies.
The Compton's Cafeteria riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The riot was a response to the violent and constant police harassment of drag queens and trans people, particularly trans women. The incident was one of the first LGBT-related riots in United States history, preceding the more famous 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. It marked the beginning of transgender activism in San Francisco.
The Transgender Law Center (TLC) is the largest American transgender-led civil rights organization in the United States. They were originally California's first "fully staffed, state-wide transgender legal organization" and were initially a fiscally sponsored project of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The stated mission of TLC is to connect transgender people and their families to technically sound and culturally competent legal services, increase acceptance and enforcement of laws and policies that support California's transgender communities, and work to change laws and systems that fail to incorporate the needs and experiences of transgender people. TLC utilizes direct legal services, public policy advocacy, and educational opportunities to advance the rights and safety of diverse transgender communities.
The Audre Lorde Project is a Brooklyn, New York–based organization for LGBT people of color. The organization concentrates on community organizing and radical nonviolent activism around progressive issues within New York City, especially relating to LGBT communities, AIDS and HIV activism, pro-immigrant activism, prison reform and organizing among youth of color. It is named for the lesbian-feminist poet and activist Audre Lorde and was founded in 1994.
Equality California (EQCA) is a non-profit civil rights organization that advocates for the rights of LGBT people in California. It is the largest statewide LGBT organization in the United States and the largest member of the Equality Federation. The organization is based in Los Angeles.
Theresa Sparks is an American transgender woman, and is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and was a candidate for San Francisco Supervisor for District 6 in the November 2010 election. She is a former president of the San Francisco Police Commission and former CEO of Good Vibrations. She is also one of San Francisco's most famous transgender women and was a Grand Marshal in the 2008 San Francisco Pride Parade.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, non-binary and otherwise queer, non-cisgender, non-heterosexual citizens of El Salvador face considerable legal and social challenges not experienced by fellow heterosexual, cisgender Salvadorans. While same-sex sexual activity between all genders is legal in the country, same-sex marriage is not recognized; thus, same-sex couples—and households headed by same-sex couples—are not eligible for the same legal benefits provided to heterosexual married couples.
Donna Sachet is the stage name of Kirk Reeves, an American drag actor, singer, community activist, and writer based in San Francisco.
Proyecto ContraSIDA Por Vida was a non-profit HIV-prevention agency located in the Mission District of San Francisco that provided community-based healthcare for the Latino/a and LGBT communities. It was one of several community-based health organizations that emerged in response to the AIDS crisis. Proyecto ContraSIDA por Vida emerged from a variety of organizations that aimed at reducing the spread of HIV in communities of color. Some of the predecessor organizations of PCPV were the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention (NTFAP), the Gay Latino Alliance (GALA), and Community United in Responding to AIDS/SIDA (CURAS), among others. Some of the leaders who came together to create PCPV included Ricardo Bracho, Diane Felix, Jesse Johnson, Hector León, Reggie Williams, and Martín Ornellas-Quintero.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in San Francisco is one of the largest and most prominent LGBT communities in the United States, and is one of the most important in the history of American LGBT rights and activism alongside New York City. The city itself has been described as "the original 'gay-friendly city'". LGBT culture is also active within companies that are based in Silicon Valley, which is located within the southern San Francisco Bay Area.
Nikki Calma, better known as Tita Aida, is a social activist from San Francisco, California. She is a long-time advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness, particularly among Asian American communities, and for transgender people.
Cecilia Chung is a civil rights leader and activist for LGBT rights, HIV/AIDS awareness, health advocacy, and social justice. She is a trans woman, and her life story was one of four main storylines in the 2017 ABC miniseries When We Rise about LGBT rights in the 1970s and 1980s.
Adela Vázquez is a Cuban American transgender activist and performer. Hailing from Cuba during a time of political uprising, Vázquez was one of 125,000 people who sought asylum and migrated in the Mariel Boat lifts in 1980. Local to San Francisco's gay scene, Vázquez began to organize with HIV prevention organization Proyecto ContraSIDA Por Vida and became a community activist for transgender rights.
Isa Noyola is a Latina transgender activist, national leader in the LGBT immigrant rights movement, and deputy director at the Transgender Law Center. In 2015, she organized the first national trans anti-violence protest. This protest was an event that brought together over 100 activists, mostly trans women of color, to address the epidemic of violence trans communities face, especially as race and gender intersectionality relates to immigration and incarceration as they deal with transphobic systems.
Felicia Elizondo was an American transgender woman with a long history of activism on behalf of the LGBT community. She was a regular at Gene Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco during the time of the Compton's Cafeteria riot, a historic LGBT community uprising.
Marcia Ochoa is a United States-based professor of Feminist Studies and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. They are the co-founder of El/La Para TransLatinas and is credited with popularizing the term "translatina."
The Transgender District, formerly known as Compton's Transgender Cultural District, is the first legally recognized transgender district in the world. Named after the first documented uprising of transgender and queer people in United States history, the Compton's Cafeteria riot of 1966, the district encompasses six blocks in the southeastern Tenderloin, San Francisco, and crosses over Market Street to include two blocks of Sixth Street. It was co-founded by Honey Mahogany, Janetta Johnson, and Aria Sa'id.
Aria Sa'id is an American transgender advocate and political strategist based in San Francisco. She is a co-founder and former executive director of The Transgender District, and founder and director of the Kween Culture Initiative. Sa'id has also worked at the Trans:Thrive resource center, as program manager for St. James Infirmary, and as policy advisor for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. In 2018, she was awarded the 10 Years of Service Award by San Francisco Pride.
The TransLatina Coalition, stylized as the TransLatin@ Coalition, is a national, Los Angeles–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity advocacy group that works on behalf of transgender Latina women who are immigrants to the United States. It established and runs the Center for Violence Prevention and Transgender Wellness and works with policymakers and organizations to advance advocacy and resource support for transgender Latinas. Its staff consists of leaders from across the United States who have specific experience in meeting the needs of transgender Latinas intersecting with public health, education, and social justice, with representation in over 11 U.S. states, Washington D.C., and Mexico City, with over seven organized chapters.
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