Latina lesbian organizations in the United States are community based organizations that emphasize the intersection of Latina and lesbian identities. Generally combining the social with the political, they emerged in response to the limited availability of spaces that spoke to their racial, gender, and sexual experiences. These groups often addressed political issues specific to their geographical locations and social/cultural/historical contexts. Nationwide organizations focused on larger national issues that impacted immigrants and LGBTQ communities.Perpetusa-Seva, Inmaculada, and Lourdes Torres. 2003. Tortilleras: Hispanic & U.S. Latina Lesbian Expression. 1 edition. Temple University Press.
These groups emerged in relation to other identity based groups of the civil rights era, including LGBTQ organizations, feminist organizations and Latino and Chicano empowerment groups. These movements were often responding to the racism and ethnocentrism of the Women's Movement, the male centered nature of LGBTQ groups, and homophobia in Latino organizations and the Chicano movement.
Latina lesbian groups created and published several newsletters during the 1980s-1990s as a way to connect with other organizations.Juamari. (1983, May). Chispa y Chisme ! Chispa y Chisme. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chispa_y_Chisme_Newsletter.jpg These included Conmoción, Las Buenas Amigas, Esto No Tiene Nombre and Chispa y Chisme. For example, during the early 1980s, two Latina Lesbian activists: Loly Carillo and Mariana Romo Carmona worked together to create outreach materials with hopes of gaining network connections with similar identities, and to raise awareness to social and political issues. Together they created a newspaper called Chispa y Chisme. In this newspaper, it was clear that many people within the community did not feel comfortable coming out, and expressing their authentic self, a call to action to create safe spaces without anxieties or fears of discrimination or backlash.Las Buenas Amigas Lesbianas Latinas in Nueva York (Digital Archive). (1993, September).https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Las_Buenas_Amigas_Newsletter.j
Latina lesbians in the United States were also part of an international network that promoted gatherings or Encuentros, called Encuentro de Lesbianas Feministas de América Latina y del Caribe. Their first Encuentro was in Cuernavaca Mexico, subsequent gatherings met in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and Argentina.
Since the 1990s, many of these groups have begun to use other terms such as queer, sapphic, dyke or the culturally specific terms such as tortillera or buchota, as a way to be more inclusive of trans, non-binary, bisexual, and pansexual members.Márquez, Alejandra. 2026. Lenchitudes: Sapphic Representation in Contemporary Mexican Narrative. State University of New York Press.Garrido, Anahi Russo. 2020. Tortilleras Negotiating Intimacy: Love, Friendship, and Sex in Queer Mexico City. None edition. Rutgers University Press.Palomera, Gisselle. 2024. “Botitas World Is a Brand Aimed at Building Community.” CaloNews.Com, November 26. https://www.calonews.com/featured-topics/lgbtq/botitas-world-is-a-brand-aimed-at-building-community/article_0b9a93fa-ac6a-11ef-a9d5-db41b92da5f6.html.
Latina lesbians as individuals and groups have also worked more intentionally with other racialized and marginalized groups. For example an Allied Media Conference in 2015 included a panel "I See You: Femmes of Color Visibility & Community" that included several members of the Los Angeles Femme of Color Collective.Allied Media Conference. 2015. “Allied Media Conference Schedule.” June 20. https://alliedmediaconference2015.sched.com/2015-06-20/list/descriptions/audience/Femme4Femme+Media. That included femme activists Alyssa Hernandez, Laura Luna Placencia, Dulce Garcia, and others.Fat Women of Color. 2021. Friendships and Dating As a Queer, Fat Femme of Color. 01:04:20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdokIpf6MdI.
West Coast
San Francisco Bay Area In the 1980s there was a Latina lesbian organization named Mujerío, they held an "encuentro" or gathering in 1989 at the Marin Headlands.
Latina Lesbians of the East Bay was an organization within the Bay Area for Lesbian identifying Latina's.
Club spaces and dance parties have been important sites of community organizing for lesbians and queers of color, and other marginalized LGBTQ communities.Adeyemi, Kemi. 2022. Feels Right: Black Queer Women and the Politics of Partying in Chicago. Duke University Press Books.Rivera-Servera, Ramon H. 2012. Performing Queer Latinidad: Dance, Sexuality, Politics. University of Michigan Press. Beginning in the 1980s and into the 1990s, the area around 16th and Mission in San Francisco was home to several gay Latino nightclubs.Roque Ramírez, Horacio Nelson. Communities of Desire: Queer Latina/Latino History and Memory, San Francisco Bay Area, 1960s–1990s. PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 2001. In San Francisco, the DJ Diane Felix was instrumental in creating a variety of monthly dance parties for queer women and their friends.Cassell, Heather. "Music's the life for Chili D." The Bay Area Reporter. 27 June 2013.Hidalgo de la Riva, Osa. Chicana Spectators and Mediamakers. Spectator 26:1 (Spring 2006): 21-26
Ellas en Acción was founded in 1993. This organization was a Latina lesbian and bisexual community action group that became the first Latina Lesbian group in the U.S. to include the word "bisexual" in its name.
Proyecto ContraSIDA por Vida was a community organization that extended information about safe-sex practices. They began at Eighteenth and Dolores in the Mission District tailoring their services to the broader LGBTQ+ community.
Los Angeles Lesbianas Unidas was founded in 1981. The Lesbianas Unidas organization was founded shortly after the (GLLU) Gay Latinos Unidos. Gay Latinos Unidos was also founded in 1981, in Los Angeles. Six months later, the Gay Latino organization, which was originally a male-led organization, opened their space to queer Latinas. Lydia Otero was the President of Gay and Lesbian Latino Unidos in 1989.
During this same time, in 1981 the AIDs pandemic was going on, which affected many members of (GLUU). AIDS impacted the whole community, including the sister organization (LU). The AIDS pandemic led to several deaths, on top of that these communities' medical health needs were not being supported nor addressed. Instead, most of the government funding went towards helping other white queer organizations impacted by AIDs. During this drastic time, Lydia Otero also started another organization named Bienstar, that focused specifically on AIDS prevention, advocacy, and support.
Raza Womyn was a queer organization at UCLA during the 1990s. In 1978, Proposition 6 was passed which sought to expel gay educators from teaching positions. This was pushed by Republican Senator John Briggs and explained his argument behind his bill in a televised debate. Briggs furthered the rhetoric of “parental rights” to rationalize LGBTQ+ discrimination in schools.“The Painful History Of Forced Outing And Anti-LGBTQ+ School Policies - Los Angeles LGBT Center.” Accessed October 22, 2025. https://lalgbtcenter.org/vanguard/the-painful-history-of-forced-outing-and-anti-lgbtq-school-policies/. Raza Womyn, whose members organize around a Muxerista (a Chicana/Latina feminist activist) vision of social justice that rejects patriarchal notions of Chicano nationalism, white and/or middle-class dominated perspectives of feminism, and static definitions of sexual identity while building on the legacy of Chicana/Latina feminist thought.
Izquierda (which means left in Spanish) was a lesbian social activist group from the West Coast that also produced music in the late seventies. Naomi Littlebear Martinez served as the leader of the group.Juamari. (1983, May). Chispa y Chisme ! Nuestras Voces, 5. Wikimedia Commons.
Terri de la Peña is a Mexican American writer known for her short stories, essays, novels. She is recognized as one of the first authors to publish short stories and novels on Chicana lesbians themes. Her writing explores the complex intergenerational conflicts within Latine communities, surrounding sexuality and belonging. She challenges these stereotypes by providing visibility to Mexicax/ Latinx lesbian experiences in literature and helped create space for generations of queer writers of color.Torres, Lourdes. “Becoming Visible: U.S. Latina Lesbians Talk Back and Act Out.”
Talking Back and Acting Out: Women Negotiating the Media Across Cultures, vol. 169,
edited by Sandra Jackson and Ann Russo, Peter Lang, 2002, pp. 151–162. JSTOR,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/42977481.
Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU), founded in 1981, is recognized for its role as one of the first queer Latine organizations established in Los Angeles. The organization focused on addressing issues such as homophobia within Latino communities, cultural preservation, HIV/AID awareness, and immigration. In 1986, Radio GLLU made history as the first bilingual LGBTQ+ radio program in the United States and strengthened community-building with other queer Latino community members,. The organization played a significant role in organizing the Second National March on Washington to advocate for Lesbian and Gay Rights and for Latino issues on a national stage.Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos Archive. “Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU).” GLLU Archive, 2024, www.glluarchive.com/.
In September 1983, the first National Lesbian of Color Conference was held in Malibu, California. This conference allowed lesbians of color to address intersecting dynamics of sexism, racism, homophobia, and classism. More than 200 individuals attended the conference, which provided the space to discuss identity, culture, politics, and spirituality. A number of influential political activist, artists, scholars, writers, and poets participated at the conference, including Paula Gunn Allen, Beth Brant, Gloria Anzaldúa, Andrea R. Canaan, Joy Harjo, Nancy Reiko Sato, Naomi Littlebear, Kwambe OmDahda, Aleida Rodríguez, Luisah Teish, Nellie Wong, Merle Woo, and Mitsuye Yamada.Retter, Yolanda. “First National Lesbians of Color Conference Convenes.” EBSCO Research Starters, 2022, ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/first-national-lesbians-color-conference-convenes.
The Museum of Social Justice in Los Angeles organized an exhibit "Finding Sequins in the Rubble: Archives of Jotería Memories in Los Angeles" August 24, 2023–February 18, 2024 that included many prominent queer Latinas from Los Angeles, Monica Palacios, Laura M Esquivel, Bamby Salcedo, and Laura Luna.Museum of Social Justice. n.d. “Finding Sequins in the Rubble: Archives of Jotería Memories in Los Angeles — Museum of Social Justice.” Accessed March 12, 2026. https://www.museumofsocialjustice.org/finding-sequins-in-the-rubble. Luna was co-founder of LA Femmes of Color Collective and has worked with Queer & Trans People of Color (QTPOC).
In 2024, the group Butchona began organizing events for lesbians and other queer women to enjoy Mexican and Spanish language music and as a community gathering space.“The Little Idea That Could: These Queer, Latinx, DJs Are Shifting the Scene in LA | Art & Culture | Calonews.Com.” n.d. Accessed February 4, 2026. https://www.calonews.com/featured-topics/culture/the-little-idea-that-could-these-queer-latinx-djs-are-shifting-the-scene-in-la/article_8264e660-930c-11ef-8fe9-c3d60cd37fd9.html. That same year, Zizi Bander and Ty Curiel, began organizing events called "Cafecito and Comunidad" as part of their brand Botitas, as a way to gather queer and trans people of color in Los Angeles and celebrate cultural identity and community.
Southwest
Texas
Austin