An event that started nine years ago as a fundraiser for a local community radio show has become a staple of the Pilsen neighborhood, and a tool for organizing and connecting young people to resources. But its existence and longevity is not proof that young LGBTQ people of color are safe, on the contrary, it is a reminder that the intentional creation of safe spaces in our communities continues to be a necessity.
For the past nine years, young people in the Pilsen neighborhood have been organizing a prom for LGBTQ youth, known as the Queer Prom. It is a night at the end of May when the Pilsen neighborhood sees a subtle parade of gowns and tuxes from the 18th Street Blue Line stop to the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA). The event itself serves as a space for young people to socialize with other LGBTQ youth and allies from Chicago high schools, receive informational resources from non-profit organizations and community groups, experience a drag show, dance, and participate in the informal election of a prom queen, prom king, and prom queer.
I have attended every promfirst as one of the event organizers and founders, and more recently as a volunteer. Each time that I have gone, there has been a moment in the night when I find myself standing still, staring at all the young people walking in, trying to appreciate how special the moment and the space are. The food smells of Mexican rice and beans, fajitas, tortillas, and flan for desert. Young people hang out at the front entrance looking at resources brought by community organizations, some getting tested for HIV, while in the back room folks are dancing. I can hear the music playing in the backgrounda mix of music aimed at pleasing a wide-range of audiences from the top 20, to the music by Latin American gay icons, to music in Spanish by LGBTQ artists.
But creating an intentional space takes work behind the scenes. The first few years, when I was one of the coordinators, we formed teams that went to different high schools around Chicago to talk to young people about the event, and ask them to help us create it. We spoke with gay-straight-alliances, intentionally in immigrant neighborhoods and communities of color, meetings that led to deep exchanges about what it was like to be LGBTQ in our respective communities.
We also reached out to organizations that provide services and resources for LGBTQ youththe thinking being that if we were going to have a room full of young people interested in connecting with community, it would have been a wasted opportunity not to have community organizations there. For each meetingwhether at a high school or at a community organizationmeant dealing with institutions, bureaucracy, paternalistic attitudes towards young people and LGBTQ youth of color, and once in a while, racist attitudes toward the Pilsen neighborhood that assume, for example, that because the neighborhood is predominantly Mexican, it is homophobic.
It was also an opportunity to organize within the museum and staff. I remember making it a point to have gender-neutral bathrooms at the promas far as I know the first and only time that this has happened at the NMMA. Part of making sure this process took place was to have conversations with the maintenance and event staff about what that meant and why it was important. From these conversations, I found out who had gay relatives, who thought they had never spoken to another gay person, and who had questioned their own sexualityoften in post-meeting one-on-one gatherings.
This year, the ninth queer prom is taking place Friday, May 24, 2013, 7-11 p.m., with the theme "I am what I am/ Soy lo que soy." The lead coordinator and dear friend, Emmanuel Garcia, continues to maintain the goals of organizing and connecting to community, creating a youth-led space, and grounding the event in the immigrant and Mexican history of the host neighborhood. Nine years later, the neighborhood has changedthere is increased gentrification that has led to low-income people and immigrant residents moving south and west, the Chicago Dyke March took place on 18th Street for two years, and organizations like United Latino Pride have made it a point to increase the visibility of LGBT-owned businesses in the area.
But while it is important to celebrate these efforts and the changes that they have brought, we cannot forget that they are important in part because they are so needed. Young LGBTQ people continue to experience violencein the streets, in our neighborhoods, in LGBTQ neighborhoods, in our homes, in our schools. That Queer Prom continues to exist, that young people continue to attend it (and spread the word), and that there are people and institutions committed to making it happen, is a sign of how much this space is still needed.
Congratulations to all those who continue to make this space happen.
For more information visit radioarte.org/queer-prom-2013. The address is 1842 W. 19th Street in Chicago, cost is $10 for youth, $20 for adults.