“The worst thing a Latino parent can have is a gay child.”
Those words still keep Gaby Larios from revealing her sexuality to her family.
Pictures of expressionless faces holding dry-erase boards with LGBTQ attacks were on display at “The Weight of Your Words,” a celebration of National Coming Out Day presented by LGBT Affairs and Pride Student Union.
“Gays will ruin this country,” “You will go to hell,” “I can’t love an abomination” and 40 other attacks were hung under a large tent on the Plaza of the Americas on Friday.
Students spanning the LGBTQ spectrum and transcending race and socioeconomic status were at the gallery Friday.
Pictures were taken after Pride meetings and in the Rainbow Room of Peabody Hall. Students could also take their own pictures at the event.
Larios, an 18-year-old women’s studies and sociology freshman who identifies as lesbian, noticed a trend in the exhibit: like in her own experience, many of the comments in the pictures were said by a family member.
“Family stops a lot of people from coming out,” she said, “because I guess they feel like they did a bad job raising us.”
Faculty and students of all backgrounds stopped by to snap pictures. Others struck a discussion about struggles in the LGBTQ community.
Pride’s Internal Vice President Hiram Martinez-Cabrera said the event was modeled after “Project Unbreakable,” a project raising awareness of sexual abuse by victims displaying the quotes of their attackers. “Weight of Your Words” was the finale to events celebrating Pride History Week.
“It’s important to remember where we came from and the pressure we faced being raised,” the 19-year-old UF public relations sophomore said.
Although she identifies as a straight female, political science freshman Wendy Serra, 18, supported the event because the students in the pictures caught her attention.
“Being from the Hispanic community and hearing these things, it brings what they say to light,” she said. “It doesn’t affect me, but it affects other people.”
A version of this story ran on page 4 on 10/14/2013 under the headline "Coming Out Day gallery caps off Pride History Week"
