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But not considered in that debate are the LGBT folks who come here for the freedom of being themselves. There are also people with HIV/AIDS who fear that disclosure of their HIV status in their own country could cost them dearly.

Oscar de la O is a national gay Latino figure who has built an organization called Bienestar with nine gay and HIV/AIDS centers throughout Southern California. I asked him to help us understand the difficulty of addressing HIV/LGBT/ and immigration.

KO: Have you endorsed a particular candidate and if so, why?

OdlO: I personally have endorsed a candidate but as the president of BIENESTAR, I will refrain from saying since I wouldn’t want my personal endorsement to be misconstrued as an endorsement on behalf of the agency. As a non-profit we can’t endorse a particular candidate, however we have encouraged our community to vote and to get informed specially when it comes to issues affecting the LGBT community as well as our fight against HIV/AIDS.

KO: Do you think there has been a missed opportunity for the candidates not to discuss the issue of HIV when talking about immigration - and how would you advise the candidates to discuss the issue?

OdlO: Discussing Immigration and HIV together is complicated, even within our community there is a fear of tying the two in together because of the current anti-immigrant rhetoric that has created such an anti-Latino environment. The current anti-immigrant frenzy is reminiscent of the national rhetoric against people living with HIV/AIDS - in short, people are so blinded by commonly held misconceptions that they fail to realize that they are talking about a fellow human being. Both immigrants and people living with HIV have something fundamental in common – they have been and continue to be stigmatized. The ignorance, hate and the marginalization that both of these groups have and continue to endure has resulted in a community who is both immigrant and HIV positive to feel as if their lives, their wellbeing and their future simply doesn’t matter.

So yes, our candidates have missed the opportunity to go beyond the current immigration debate around jobs and the economy and focus on the current threat on public health that this anti-immigrant/anti-Latino rhetoric has created. From a public health perspective we simply can’t afford to further marginalize a community that is already disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. We can not allow for this anti-immigrant rhetoric to continue dominating in such a way that people are becoming afraid of accessing their life-saving medication. The reality is that the anti-Latino/immigrant message of “you do not matter” transcends the immigration debate and in the end people stop caring for their health, stop accessing annual HIV testing services and stop getting informed because they begin to believe that a piece of paper makes them less worthy of living a long an healthy life.

KO: Bienestar has been basically first and for a long time, alone in helping transgender Latinas. How would you advise the candidates to address this issue of one of the most invisible groups?

OdlO: Yes, BIENESTAR is proud to have the largest Latina Transgender women support groups in the entire nation. While Transgender women make up a huge part of our BIENESTAR familia, they are unfortunately (along with other transgender communities) continually forgotten by most advocacy and civil rights organizations.

Around the issue of immigration and the recent surge for attaining the highly coveted Latino vote, I would advise candidates to publicly acknowledge the existence of transgender immigrants who come to our country seeking asylum, the vast majority do so only after enduring severe physical attacks by family members and even law enforcement in their country of origin. I would particularly like to see this public acknowledgement during a candidates rally for the Latino vote. Candidates speak of the importance of unity, BIENESTAR also does this, as we continually promote and advocate for the acceptance and respect of our Latina Transgender community not just by the larger society but by our very own Latino community.

- Karen Ocamb