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)
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