In “That’s My Place!”: Negotiating Racial, Sexual, and Gender Politics in San Francisco’s Gay Latino Alliance, by Horacio N. Roque Ramírez we learn how queer latino’s organized both politically and socially during the 1970’s to 1980’s particularly though the Gay Latino Alliance (GALA). GALA was one of the first organizations created by lesbians and gay’s created by both Latino Lesbians and Gay men. GALA organized various community events such as dances, parades, fundraisers, and more. Through their fundraisers they supported latino issues, women’s racism, and many other issues. They ended up dissolving in 1980’s due to the changing political landscape and constant internal conflicts but their influence on the latino and gay community remained. In the book Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence by Christina B. Hanhardt the relationship between LGBT activism, state violence, and urban development is examined. The main argument from this book was that as LGBT movement’s gained traction by embracing policies, individualism, and property rights. This led to people of color not being included and them experiencing the violence which the LGBT movement was claiming and trying so hard to stop. The two pieces complement each other pretty well as they approach the same question from different angles. Both of them agree that race, gender, and class are very important in LGBT policies. One difference though is that Hanhardt is critiquing the path which Roque Ramírez is celebrating in it’s earlier form. These texts challenge and help me understand everything better as it shows that Queer / LGBT activism was never done a single way their were always various tensions between the grassroots organizations and various institutions. Both of these also encourage various thoughts about progress in LGBT history and how everything that was lost during those movements has become mainstream media with politics.
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