Humboldt Park group creates welcoming “atmosphere” for Puerto Rican LGBT community

Growing up in Humboldt Park isn't easy for even the most well-adjusted kid. So imagine how much more complicated it becomes when a gay adolescent decides to come out of the closet.

Myra Rodriguez knows those challenges first hand. Rodriguez, 21, is a lesbian, and says she found it difficult to deal with her sexuality in a heavily Puerto Rican, Roman Catholic area where homophobia can be prevalent.

"When I was growing up, I never had a space that I could go to express myself as a lesbian," she said. "I felt it was something I pretty much had to keep to myself."

This experience inspired Rodriguez and her girlfriend Janeida Rivera to co-found "Juventud del Ambiente Boricua" (JAB). The group, run out of the Batey Urbano in Humboldt Park's Paseo Boricua business and cultural district, seeks to provide a safe space within the Puerto Rican community for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people age 15-25 to discuss their sexuality.

Rivera said the couple, along with one other Batey Urbano collective member, started the group in February. The group chose the word "ambiente," meaning "atmosphere" or "ambience," because it is a slang term used by members of Puerto Rico's gay community to describe themselves, Rivera said.

Rivera, 20, said the group focuses on mentoring and promoting leadership for gay youth. Other areas of emphasis are fostering dialogue and education, both to help non-gay area residents develop positive ideas about homosexuality and to teach gay teens and 20-somethings sexual health.

"We're looked at as "Those homosexual people, all they do is party and drink,'" Rivera said. "But we want to shift paradigms and let other Puerto Ricans know that's not what being gay is about.

"We wanted to set an example for kids," Rivera added. "We wanted to do things that didn't promote drinking, smoking or promiscuity. We wanted to educate about safer sex, because Latinos have higher rates of HIV, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases."

Staying involved in the Humboldt Park community is particularly important for JAB. Rivera said other gay organizations in Chicago - notably in Boystown, the city's main LGBT center " don't address the unique issues that come with being both gay and Puerto Rican.

"We want to create a space within the Puerto Rican community," she said, "so we don't have to travel and learn who we are [as GLBT individuals] from people who don't know about our [Puerto Rican] history, culture and community. Boystown - full of white affluent men - is not there for us."

One past JAB event tailored to Humboldt Park was a discussion of issues raised in the 2000 film "Before Night Falls," about a gay Cuban poet. Another was "Coming Out: An Act of Freedom," which featured a gay Puerto Rican man talking about the importance of not "outing" people and instead letting them use their coming out as an act of liberation.

JAB has also emphasized integrating gay and non-gay community residents by finding common cultural bonds that outweigh divergent sexualities, Rivera said.

"We want to make it clear that it isn't separating the community," she said. "We're not saying it's only for GLBT youth, because it's not. We have straight members, one of whom doesn't agree with homophobia within hip-hop.

"Our goal is to bring together straight and GLBT people to let them realize that there isn't a vast degree of difference," Rivera said. "We emphasize shared Puerto Rican history, not different sexuality."

Rivera said the community has responded to JAB's initiatives. Despite the presence of homophobia - "especially from the older generation," Rivera said - Humboldt Park residents and community groups, particularly the Batey Urbano, have provided JAB with support.

Rivera said this assistance inspired her group to give back to the neighborhood. A fundraiser JAB held in June brought in $800 for the Puerto Rican Cultural Center.

The group's impact has also been more personal, according to Judy Diaz, a Batey Urbano collective member.

"I feel the group has really helped me, as a straight person, come to understand how I can be an ally to the gay community," she said.

But despite JAB's accomplishments, Rivera is not content. She wants to ensure the group and its ideas keep moving forward.

"I'm only 20, but I know this is something that I want to be a long-term project," she said. "I might have to transition out of the group when I get older, but I want there to be a group that knows the importance of having a space like this in Humboldt Park for Puerto Rican youth."