You might remember the few posts I wrote back in December on the brutal beating and subsequent death of Ecuadorean immigrant José Sucuzhañay. The assailants, who saw Sucuzhañay walking arm-in-arm with his brother, allegedly shouted anti-immigrant and anti-gay slurs as they attacked them, mistaking them for a gay couple.Yesterday, the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) posted a great essay by NACLA Research Associate Marisol LeBrón titled "When Xenophobia
Meets Homophobia".
In the essay, LeBrón picks up on some of my thoughts on how immigration and LGBT-rights organizations reacted to the crime, and does a far better job than I did in analyzing why both sides "failed to recognize the potential for collaboration and coalition".
Better yet, she doesn't stop at questioning the single-issue focus of mainstream LGBT-rights organizations, but also argues that Latino / immigration rights organizations are just as guilty.
It's a great essay and I urge you to click on the link and read it in full.
By the way, LeBrón is not just a NACLA Research Associate. She is also one of my favorite bloggers. You can have a look at Marisol's musings (including the NACLA essay) at the greatly titled post pomo nuyorican homo.
Side note: In her essay, Marisol mentions a few organizations that 'get' multi-issue advocacy. I'll would ad Make the Road by Walking's Gays and Lesbians of Bushwick Empowered (GLOBE) who organized the Dec. 14th immigration rights / LGBT rights rally in the wake of the crime. I didn't give kudos to organizer Alexander Morris back then, so I will now. Photo captured at the rally, above, courtesy of my friend José Bayona.
Previously:
- Photos from the José Sucuzhañay vigil in Brooklyn (Dec. 15, 2008)
- Human Rights Campaign stands up for straight immigrant killed in gay bashing (Dec. 14, 2008)
- José Sucuzhañay has passed away (Dec. 14, 2008)
- Bushwick attack: Were anti-gay slurs shouted by assailants? Does it make it less a heinous crime if the answer is 'no'? (Dec. 11, 2008)
- More on Bushwick bias crime against Ecuadorean brothers (Dec. 8, 2008)
- Breaking: Anti-gay, anti-Latino slurs shouted at Ecuadorean men during beating in Brooklyn (Dec. 8, 2008)
Posts
1 comment:
Hey Andres,
I'm glad you saw the post. I was actually about to send you the link and you beat me to it!
I want to thank you for covering the Sucuzhanay murder, to this day Blabbeando is the site that did the best job covering the case in addition to community action in response to the attacks. Your posts served as a valuable resource for me while I worked on this article.
Thank you for all the amazing work you do!
-Marisol
Post a Comment