Waves Ahead Combats Issues Facing the Puerto Rican LGBT Community

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — While the LGBT Community has come a long way in Puerto Rico, there are still many issues of concern facing the community today. Waves Ahead works hard at tackling these issues head on. 

Waves Ahead is an organization dedicated to serving the needs of the LGBT and elder communities. According to their website, they “offer support to the marginalized and vulnerable sectors of society by giving them the necessary help to strengthen their community and family environment.” They manage SAGE Puerto Rico and its LGBT and Senior Community Center. Sage Puerto Rico is a “subsidiary of Sage USA, which provides advocacy and services for the LGBT+ older adults.” 

“We are the only organization that is working with the LGBT community in Puerto Rico right now,” Waves Ahead Executive Director Wilfred Labiosa said. “We began here in San Juan, but now we have three community centers. My goal is to have one on every key point of the country.” 

Currently, there are centers in San Juan, Cabo Rojo and Maunabo. There are plans to open a space in Luisa and Isabella in the next year. 

Waves Ahead serves elders in addition to the LGBT Community because Puerto Rico has an increasingly old population that in turn creates more needs. According to the 2020 Census, 28.3% of Puerto Ricans are 60 years or older, and it is expected to increase to 40% this decade. From 2010 to 2020, the population of the island has decreased by approximately 500,000, from 3.7 million to 3.2 million, as younger families have moved to the states for more job opportunities. 

The LGBT community makes up 7-11% of the total population and 9% of the LGBT community are 55 years old and above. The community is around a half of a million people. 

Battling Homelessness 

Homelessness is a pressing issue in the LGBT community because members of the community are often neglected and forced out by their families. This is added on top of the 43.5% of Puerto Ricans that live at or below the poverty rate. Waves Ahead has several projects to find housing for these individuals.  

“There are no shelters here for LGBT people,” Labiosa said. “We put in a bid, and it was just approved last week to develop the first shelter for LGBT people in Cabo Rojo. We will have five transitory housing units in Cabo Rojo, and we are in the development for the first apartments focused on the LGBT elders in Isabella, opening in 2023.”  

According to Waves Ahead, it is imperative that there are housing options dedicated to the LGBT community as they are one of the highest rates of homelessness. Additionally, they developed a program that garnered nationwide coverage, as they rebuilt roofs for LGBT and elderly hurricane victims that were not approved to be rebuilt by the government. 

According to Labiosa, after the hurricane hit in 2017, the governor of Puerto Rico approved many houses to be rebuilt, but only if they had proof of ownership. 

“Some people have generational ownership, meaning they don’t have title of the land or the house, and they cannot show it except that their great-great-great grandfather was in the house,” Labiosa said. 

They ended up completely funding and rebuilding 21 homes. The major earthquakes in 2019 added fuel to the homelessness issue. Labiosa said they provided food and therapy short term for over 3,000 individuals.  

Another struggle facing the community is the Puerto Rican Civil Code, that was recently updated for the first time since it became a U.S. colony. In 2019, the governor included the new code, called the inheritance code. Prior to that, same-sex marriages weren’t treated as legal marriages in many aspects. 

“We followed the inheritance law that impacted LGBT people based on the Spaniard law,” Labiosa said. “In 2015, we had the right to marriage, but if a same-sex spouse died, the living spouse could not get their inheritance. Labiosa said inheritances would go to ex-spouses in some cases if they were previously in a heterosexual relationship.  

Since the law when into place just a few months before the pandemic Labiosa said they still aren’t sure what the impact of the new inheritance code will be. 

“We don’t know how the court system has implemented those new regulations that include LGBT people yet,” he said. 

Adding to the fire, COVID-19 created another host of issues for people in poverty and it was harder for Waves Ahead to reach some of them in times of social distancing. This contributed to the already overwhelming homelessness issue in the community. However, they were still able to provide boxes of meals to 300 people every month. 

“We have a food sustainability program where we not only give people food boxes, but also materials to grow their own home garden that lowers anxiety and provide food,” Labiosa said. 

According to Labiosa, when COVID-19 began the governor said that everyone was housed. However, homelessness still carried over from the hurricane and earthquakes. 

“We were sanctioned from traveling outside San Juan during COVID-19 to help people in Ponce because people were living in tents in parks,” Labiosa said. 

Puerto Rican LGBT History 

Historically, many Puerto Ricans have been open to the concept that gender is more fluid than the beliefs of the mainstream binary system. This can be traced back to the earliest settlers on the island. When the Spaniards first colonized Puerto Rico, they brought slaves over, and the slaves practiced Santeria, their spiritual guidance in the Afro-Cuban religion. They prayed to Orishas, who are sacred beings that oversee humans and the forces of nature. 

“Many of the Orishas have two genders,” Labiosa said. “The same Orishas can have female and male qualities, and they don’t have a gender, what now we call gender fluid. “The Africans living here have always been thinking about gender being fluid. Our gay movement here began with those individuals that are in that religion.” 

This practice has fizzled out over recent decades, but there’s still individuals of the religion leading the efforts for equality today. 

Despite this, the LGBT community and religion haven’t always got along. There is a church in Vieques that openly advertises conversion therapy. Although conversion therapy is banned on minors, it is still legal to have conversion therapy practices on adults. 

Despite being a common tactic used to attempt to force some to become straight, there isn’t any data that proves it conversion therapy is successful, and it leads to further mental health issues.  

“There is a law that we cowrote, called PS184, that says that no reparative therapy can be used in no area that accepts federal or public funding,” Labiosa said. “We are still fighting for it to pass.” 

There is a vibrant and resilient LGBT community here in Puerto Rico, according to Labiosa. Even in the 1960s, there was vibrant nightlife and culture, led by many drag queens. 

“You can find LGBT people today across the island with a high concentration in San Juan, Mayaguez, Vieques, Cabo Rojo and Dorado,” Labiosa said. 

Safeness and Mental Health Issues 

IN 2019-2021 there have been at least 14 reported homicides on LGBT people. There have likely been more because these hate crimes go underreported.  

Alexa, 31-year-old transgender women, was homeless, and she had a mirror she used for protection. One day in 2019, she was in a McDonalds bathroom, and someone reported her for being a “peeping Tom” and it went viral. Once the news spread, she started receiving death threats. The following day she was murdered. Waves Ahead has a memorial they are working on to remember her and to symbolize standing up against transgender violence. 

Much like the United States, LGBT individuals in Puerto Rico suffer disproportionate rates of suicide. This past month, the two leading services for transgender health and services closed, claiming that the majority of transgender people are moving away. However, Labiosa said this isn’t the case.  

“We don’t provide medical support, we provide mainly mental health support, but we are currently meeting to add another floor to our building to perform medical practices,” he said. 

Additional Projects  

Waves Ahead has multiple projects working at once to control other issues, such as food sustainability, combating mental health and rebuilding roads that were destroyed in the hurricane.  

“We have music therapy, creative arts and many others,” Labiosa said. “These interventions, no insurance covers it, but we apply for federal grants to fund them.”  

Waves Ahead provides a unique form of therapy that Labiosa calls “dirt therapy.” This idea is using plants and gardening to improve mental well being 

“It’s the same thing that you do in the sand with your fingers when you go to the beach, but with dirt,” Labiosa said. “That way when you use your fingers, you’re planting something that will grow.” 

In addition, they have a micro entrepreneurship program working with LGBT people and older adults to develop their own business. The other one is about public health policies, educating locals on the LGBT community. 

“I think these community centers really provide a space for them to feel like a little bit of home away from home,” Labiosa said.  

LGBT people have made a difference in Puerto Rican history, including a current campaign to increase mental health awareness. The campaign, called “Expresate Puerto Rico,” is partnered with SAGE in New York City. 

“It’s about educating people that it’s important to talk about our issues and that mental health shouldn’t be taboo,” Labiosa said. “We really can take care of our mental health in a preventive matter, just like physical health. It highlights Puerto Ricans and their stories.”