Knowing your roots

How the Hispanic Black Gay Coalition is working to change the face of the LGBT community in Boston.

Born in 2009 from a noticeable divide, the Hispanic Black Gay Coalition is kicking off a yearlong series of events this May that are designed to bridge the gap between Boston's LGBT and minority communities.

Quincy Roberts, 28, and Corey Yarbrough, 24, founded the HBGC after both had been living in Boston for three or four years, but still had not found their niche. "We kind of felt out of place" at mainstream LGBT groups and organizations, Roberts said. "We didn't want to speak up because we were the only two minorities at some of the meetings." Roberts and Yarbrough queried older black and Hispanic LGBT people as to why there seemed to be no social resources designed for LGBT minorities. "Nobody could really answer that question, so we just took matters into our own hands," Roberts said.

One of the principal aims of the HBGC is to cast light on the lack of diversity in the mainstream LGBT community. It's hard enough to be a racial or ethnic minority, Yarbrough said, but "it's another thing to be an LGBT person of color in Boston. You really feel like you're ignored and your voice isn't heard." In order to change the oft-negative experiences LGBT people of color endure, Roberts said, you must first understand their realities. "What we will do is raise awareness of being a sexual and racial minority" -- an existence that Roberts said is not an easy one.

Being LGBT and a person of color "means the loss of family" for Roberts. "I think it's a lot easier to come out when you're not a minority. When you're a minority and you come out, a lot of your family members, they cut their ties with you." While Roberts considers himself fortunate that his mother refused to speak with him for only eight months after he came out, "a lot of my friends, their parents don't even talk to them...like three or four years later."

Roberts, a self-proclaimed "open book," thinks that this rejection of LGBT children may be influenced by the Southern Baptist religion. "Being Southern Baptist -- because a lot of African Americans are Southern Baptist -- that's what the ministers or the preachers are always preaching: if you're gay, or if you're laying with the same sex, you will go to hell," Roberts said. "So if you hear that from the age of seven to eighteen years old, that [rhetoric] will be embedded in your head. ...[Communities of color] are deeply rooted into their religions," and to that end, the HBGC can offer spiritual support as well.

The HBGC serves to "educate...straight communities of color to realize the walk that LGBT people face, especially in the light of already being a racial minority," Yarbrough said. Part of this mission involves tackling the intricacies of the "Down Low," or DL, lifestyle. DL men have intimate relationships with women -- that can even include marriage -- but have sex with male partners without telling anyone, including their wives or girlfriends. "I think being DL and closeted like that is almost a disorder," Roberts said. "It's not that pivotal in lesbians of color, but it's definitely here in full throttle in the Hispanic and African American gay community." The way to combat the DL lifestyle, Roberts said, is "having more people of color be proud of who they are. You don't have to hide."

And that's where the HBGC comes in. "The main support is coming-out support. We just want men and women of color from the LGBT community to know that there is a group that caters to them, that will help them and their families get through this," Roberts said. "[Being gay is] not a death sentence or anything like that. It's not a disease." He recalled the night he came out to his mother. "She asked me, was I positive? She asked me, was I on drugs? And I'm like, no, I have a very good job, I'm clean and sober, I'm very healthy, I live my life like everybody else," he told her. "I walk my dog, I go to work every day, [my] credit's decent, nothing's wrong with me."

According to Roberts and Yarbrough, education needs to happen on both sides of the issue. "We do want the mainstream LGBT community to understand that our struggle is slightly different," Roberts said. "We already have two strikes against us. ...We're kind of an outcast in the LGBT community that's already an outcast in mainstream society. It's almost like a triple negative."

The organization "serves to educate the mainstream LGBT community that's often viewed as white, to educate them about our experiences and our unique walk in this lifestyle," Yarbrough said. The HBGC works to "empower our own community just by being strong enough and having the courage to tell our stories."

The HBGC goes beyond the scope of a social group into the realm of community service. "We are a service group and we just want to separate ourselves completely from the social networking groups out there," Roberts said. "Now, don't get me wrong, they are wonderful to have. Everybody loves to party and have a cocktail." The HBGC, on the other hand, offers a book club, documentary screenings, and community service opportunities to inspire LGBT people of color "to step up more in leadership roles or step up in getting involved in their community more to inspire and empower each other as a community of black and Latino LGBT individuals," Yarbrough said.

May 1 will see a creative forum event that will kick off a year of special events from the HBGC. "Coming Out as a Black and Latino LGBT" will allow presenters from the community to share their stories through personal narratives, monologues, poetry, and interpretive dance. Guest speakers include Johnny Diaz, reporter and author of "Boston Boys Club," and Uriah Bell, a local poet and author of "Epiphany: Poems in the Key of Love." This event is open to all. For more information, please visit hbgc-boston.org.