Gay Latino Americans are 'coming of age' - CNN.com: ... A 2007 survey conducted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network discovered that at schools where a Gay Student Alliance club existed, 59 percent of gay Latino students participated in the club, says Elizabeth Diaz, a senior researcher at the network. The survey defined gay youths as those who were lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
The network also says that since 1999, at least 4,000 Gay Student Alliances have formed groups at public and private schools in the United States.
'While harassment in schools for Latino gay students remained high, we also know that these students have more support than in past generations,' Diaz says.
At least one Latina scholar is now even questioning a fundamental assumption about homophobia in the Latino community.
Lourdes Torres, president of Amigas Latinas, a lesbian and bisexual support group, says the notion that Latino people are more homophobic and its men more macho is not only false, but tinged with racism.
Men from all sorts of ethnic groups have long acted in a patriarchal manner, but only Latino men have the term 'machismo' attached to their behavior, she says.
