10 STEPS TO UNDERSTANDING HOW RACIAL INEQUITIES AFFECT LGBTQ COMMUNITIES OF COLOR

5. Ask: What disadvantages have accumulated over time for the grantee? What advantages (e.g. wealth, housing) have been historically barred?

Historians have documented how centuries of de jure and de facto racial discrimination led to the present-day disparities among people of color, including LGBTQ people of color. At various stages in U.S. history, people of color were assigned second-class citizenship, denied housing and employment, marginalized in the voting process and relegated to localities with fewer resources or opportunities for advancement. Further, many LGBTQ people of color are part of immigrant families who originated in countries wrecked by war, genocide, resource shortages, economic and natural disasters—countries where LGBTQ people might have also faced persecution because of their sexualities, gender identities and political leanings. Because histories vary depending on the population, it's helpful to grasp the specific histories that disadvantaged LGBTQ people of color—and how grantees continue to deal with the consequences.

PrYSM notes how language barriers pose a problem for LGBTQ youth and older generations such as parents, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. First, parenting can be difficult when children don't speak their parents' native languages. It also affects how Southeast Asian youth discuss their personal lives, including their sexualities and gender identities. And as noted before, Southeast Asian youth and their families struggle with the material and psychological cost of generations of poverty, racism and anti-immigrant discrimination; these effects reverberate in all aspects of their lives and their healthy development.