In the last year or so, Americans have seen the political arena drastically shift into something that was once thought as unattainable: LGBTQ people holding office. In Boston, Americans can also now witness history as Alejandro St. Guillen runs for Boston City Council as the first openly gay and first Latinx woman. The election will be held on September 24.
St. Guillen’s goals for the city of Boston are inclusive; once elected, she plans on “ensuring that LGBTQ youth in Boston Public Schools are safe and that more LGBTQ appropriate education is available to all students,” as she told The Rainbow Times.
St. Guillen said she is “extremely passionate about issues impacting LGBTQ youth. In particular, I am very concerned about bullying,” she told the Times. “Even in a state and city as progressive as ours when it comes to LGBTQ rights, LGBTQ youth are still at an increased risk of being bullied by their peers. I am also passionate about making sure our sex education in schools is culturally competent and LGBTQ appropriate. We know that 25 percent of all new HIV infections are among young people ages 13–24.”
“We need to do a better job at educating our young people and providing them the tools to make safe choices,” she said.
St. Guillen’s commitment to helping marginalized groups also include immigrants, teenage pregnancies, but more specifically the Latinx community, and women’s rights and abortion. She acknowledges that the Latinx community have been getting the short end of the stick as it pertains to sex education, and she wants to fix that. In doing so, she told the Times, “As the first Latina elected to the Boston City Council, I would be a fierce advocate in addressing those disparities. Additionally, I would work to ensure that our LGBT and gender-nonconforming students have access to sexual health resources that work for their identity.”
Her eagerness to help the Boston community comes from her own background; it’s her truth, and it drives her tenacity to make sure that people who mirror her identity are included in the conversation.
For more about Alejandro St. Guillen, go to alejandraforboston.com.
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