Description:

Immigration, race, and LGBTQIA2+ rights have been headline issues in recent decades. Still, the experiences of individuals whose identities cut across all three issues have remained invisible to most. In this talk, Anthony Christian Ocampo, Ph.D., addresses the reasons behind invisibility and the struggles that LGBTQIA2+ people of color face in order to be seen, not just by the public but also by their immigrant families, ethnic communities and the mainstream gay community. Drawing on the experiences of Latino and Asian American gay men, Ocampo chronicles the creative strategies they employ to embrace their identities and create community, even while facing racism and homophobia in their everyday lives.

Ocampo is a professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of “Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons” and the “Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race,” featured on NPR, NBC News, Literary Hub, and the Los Angeles Times.

This program is part of the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month celebration organized in partnership between Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA) at Northwestern University, Center for Organizing Minority Program to Advance Student Success (COMPASS) Program at Oakton College, and the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (OEDI) at Northeastern Illinois University.