A majority of youth who are both Latin American and LGBTQ+ are proud of their identity, but many are still worried about their safety and future, according to a recent report.  

In 2022, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation partnered with the University of Connecticut to survey 2,236 LGBTQ+ youth from 13 to 17 years old in all 50 states. These results were released in a 2023 LGBTQ+ Youth Report, and a separate report released this month from HRC focuses on the statistics for LGBTQ+ youth who are also Latin American. 

Charleigh Flohr, Associate Director of Public Education and Research at HRC who co-created the study, says the overall resiliency of youth surveyed and the extra challenges that youth face when they have overlapping identities were the main takeaways.

For example, 70.5 percent of Latin American LGBTQ+ youth and 75.4 percent of Latin American transgender and gender-expansive youth say they experience anti-Latin American bias in the LGBTQ+ community. About 8 percent more Latin American LGBTQ+ and transgender or gender-expansive youth experience homophobia or transphobia in the Latin American community.

Youth also even struggle with building lateral relationships with others. More than 60 percent of Latin American LGBTQ+ or transgender participants say they find it difficult to make friends who are both LGBTQ+ and from the same ethnic community. 

“[The statistics] underscored to me the importance of having resources and education, and leadership that meets people at the intersections of their identities,” Flohr said. “Making sure that we have things that speak directly to Latine youth because of their Latine and their LGBTQ+ identities.”

HRC’s survey addresses the ways the attitude toward Latin American LGBTQ+ youth within their communities, also impact their hopes and fears. According to the report, 67.6 percent of Latin American LGBTQ+ youth and 76.4 percent of Latin American transgender and gender-expansive youth fear they will face discrimination in the future because of their LGBTQ+ identity.  

Fears about joining the workforce are substantiated, not only by their current experiences of discrimination, but also by separate data surveying adult LGBTQ+ workers. A study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, showed that LGBTQ+ employees who are out to their coworkers are three times more likely to experience discrimination and almost half of LGBTQ+ employees report experiencing discrimination or harassment at work because of their sexual orientation or gender identity during their lifetime.

When adding race as a factor, LGBTQ+ employees of color were also more likely to report experiencing discrimination than white LGBTQ+ employees. Transgender and nonbinary employees and LGBTQ+ employees of color were about twice as likely as cisgender LGBTQ+ and white workers to experience discrimination or harassment in the past year.

“More robust protections, including monitoring and enforcement, are needed to ensure that LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender and nonbinary people and LGBTQ+ people of color, are fully protected from discrimination and harassment in the workplace,” said Brad Sears, lead author and founding executive director at the Williams Institute.

Flohr said the 24.5 percent of youth who said they wish they were not LGBTQ+, also overlapped with those 90 percent who said they are proud to be both Latin American and LGBTQ+. She inferred from these results, that the sentiment of Latin American youth is less that of self-hate and more the desire to move freely in the world without the challenges queer and transgender people face. 

“I think that it’s important to understand the experiences of trans youth, including Latina trans youth, within the context of the political and cultural climate right now across state legislatures in the United States,” Flohr said. “Someone who is transgender like myself might wish they aren’t transgender so they don’t have to worry about how they’re going to be treated if they go use a public restroom. I think those are all really universal experiences of all LGBTQ+ people.” 

More than 650 anti-trans bills have been considered by U.S. legislators in the past year, according to independent research from the Trans Legislation Tracker. Of those hundreds of bills, 44 have been signed into law, including restrictions on curriculum and bathroom usage. One law in Iowa, SF 2435, prohibits the establishment of Diversity Equity and Inclusion offices at all. 

Yalitza “Yaya” Vasquez-Lopez is a community organizer at MiSELA, an LGBT Youth Center in Bell, Calif., and she also works at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church. She said that despite micro-aggressions from other employees and being the only transgender Latina working at the church, Vasquez-Lopez said she feels welcomed by details at the church, such as having a woman reverend, a booklet for attendees sharing what to expect throughout the service and the display of a TGI-inclusive pride flag. 

In the past, Vasquez-Lopez worked as a member of Mariachi Arcoiris, the only LGBTQ+ Mariachi in the world.

Vasquez-Lopez said her mostly-positive experiences in workplaces have stemmed from specifically pursuing opportunities to work with other LGBTQ+ people of color. She advised youth to do the same and find inclusive workplaces early on. 

“I think even just that representation of visiting an organization and seeing the synergy of a queer staff is such a good resource for kids. I wish I would have done that a little bit more when I was growing up,” Vasquez-Lopez said. “I think I could have seen the value of a queer-forward staff as a young, growing professional.”

Flohr says she hopes organizations will remember that they may be serving Latin American LGBTQ+ youth without knowing. She also shares that using affirming language around both Latin American and LGBTQ+ issues, is meaningful and impactful. 

Despite Latine LGBTQ+ youth’s fears and doubts, Flohr says another memorable result from the study, was reading about the hope that youth displayed in their responses.  

“Many [Latin American] youth know that a future for them is possible and they want those futures, whether it’s going to college or pursuing careers that are right for them,” Flohr said. “How successful they can be in those things … is also dependent on institutions and adults in those institutions to deliver the appropriate care and resources and education to them.”