Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons^™

"Claiming Queer Cultural Citizenship: Gay Latino (Im)Migrant Acts In San Francisco", Horacio N. Roque Ramirez Dr.

Horacio N Roque Ramirez, Ph.D.

The essay foregrounds the social and political histories of four gay Chicano and mexicano activists in the San Francisco Bay Area, demonstrating how their cultural and political organizing labor challenges the historical presumption that all queers are legal citizens or that all immigrants are heterosexual. Drawing on Renato Rosaldo’s conception of cultural citizenship and Lisa Lowe's notion of "immigrant acts," the essay traces these activists’ negotiation of social membership and citizenship through their cultural work, making racial ethnic and sexualized political claims in historical periods wrought by AIDS, gentrification, racism, and anti-immigrant legislations.