Serrano Goes 'Out To Lunch'

Pedro Julio "PJ" Serrano, the first openly-gay man to run for public office in Puerto Rico, said that in order to create change within yourself, you must first make it happen in the outside world.

His lecture, "The Face of Gay Puerto Rico" was sponsored by both the Rainbow Center and the PR LACC (Puerto-Rican and Latin Cultural Center).

Dr. Mayte Perez-Franco, director of the PR LACC, said Serrano's "experience as a gay Latino is very real and should be told to increase awareness and understanding."

As Serrano spoke to an intimate audience of about 30 people on Wednesday in the Rainbow Center, he revealed his struggle as a 23-year old gay man running for a seat in the Puerto Rican House of Representatives in 1998.

After a brief introduction by Rainbow Center Director Stephanie Marnin, Serrano said in a world of political corruption, he "wanted to be as honest as possible." In Puerto Rico, which is predominantly homophobic, his openness was an unprecedented act. His brutal honesty, however, brought upon him unforeseen burdens, he said, which he all managed to survive.

The word "survivor" continued to come up. Serrano is not only a survivor of discrimination, but of betrayal.

Many former political allies of Serrano supported his candidacy privately, he said, but publicly they denied even knowing him. He also didn't find support from his parents, who foced him to move out when he came out to them at age 19, he said.

Serrano is also a survivor of numerous death threats, including phone calls, vandalization of his apartment, the cutting of his car breaks and two men coming after him with shotguns. Even though the threats were far in the past, "it is still hard to remember moments when my life was at danger for being true to myself," he said.

Serrano is also has surved health crises, as he lives with HIV.

Puerto Rico has large "in the closet" LGBT - Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender - population, he said. Serrano joked the closet was so big it included commodities such as air conditioning and large sofa beds. This secrecy is partially due to the Rhode Island-sized area of Puerto Rico, he said, where mostly everyone knows everyone else's business.

In 2000, Serrano withdrew his candidacy after running as an independent, for he needed more money and signatures and became "an activist by default," he said.

He found his calling when he discovered he not only wanted to attain personal freedom, but freedom for all of Puerto Rico as well, he said.

Eric Knudsen, a 5th-semester journalism major, interned with Serrano this past summer and immediately thought it would be a good idea for him to speak.

"I think so highly of him and he is a great speaker," he said.

Knudsen said Serrano also unites two active communities on campus; The Rainbow Center and PR LACC.

Marnin of the Rainbow Center e-mailed Serrano to request his presence at UConn.

"Often, when people think of the LGBT community they think of white, middle-class people from the Northeast," and Serrano's "presence challenges that notion," she said.

Serrano is the founder of "Puerto Rico Para Todas" ("Puerto Rico For All") and has worked as a political director of the Human Rights Foundation. He spent time in Washington D.C. working for (LLEGO), the National Latina/o Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Organization. He is currently working on a book, which he hopes will help those dealing with the coming-out process.

Serrano, a true survivor, lives by Gandhi's words, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

As his family learned to accept him, he hopes Puerto Rico will do the same, for despite all of his experiences, "Love has always won every battle."