The Importance Of Being A Latino

Being a Latino in America is difficult because most Latinos are considered immigrants even though that is not true. Latinos have to deal with so many things like discrimination, being looked down at, seen as worthless, or looked at as either teen moms or gangsters by society. All these barriers that Latinos have to deal with prevents them from coming out as an LGBTQ+ member because Latinos fear that they wont be accepted by their family due to culture. Coming out of the closet and being latino is really crucial because Latinos are not always accepted within their cultural grounds. Latino family 's tend to feel strongly about tradition, culture and religion which makes LGBTQ latinos less open to showing their true identity to their families. Although latino families feel strong about a man fulfilling the role of “machismo” or a female as “marianismo” they should not ignore or deny their child that identifies as an LGBTQ because of all the barriers they face in a daily basis therefore not having the support of their family can either make them feel alone or worse, get depressed or …show more content…
However that does not mean these beliefs can not be bent or ignored for the sake of a son, daughter, brother, sister, father, mother etc. In the Article “Being out to others: The relative importance of family support, identity and religion for LGBT Latina/os” by Antonio Pastrana, Jr., he talks about the importance of family support in order to help them come out of the closet and to avoid conflicts like stress, anxiety or depression. Pastrana writes “Findings reveal that, when controlling for a variety of characteristics and measures, family support is the strongest, positive predictor of outness for LGBT Latina/os” (Pastrana). Family is the most important thing to Latinos therefore having support for an LGBTQ Latino could help them feel accepted and prevent