Jesse Garcia, LULAC State Director, District of Columbia
Jesse Garcia is originally from the border, born and raised in Brownsville, Texas. He was educated in San Antonio, earning a bachelor’s degree in communication arts from Our Lady of the Lake University and a master’s degree also in communications from St. Mary’s University. For the last 24 years, Garcia has worked in public affairs for the federal government, promoting the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, Peace Corps and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Currently, he works in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In his spare time, Garcia became involved with local politics in North Texas, registering voters, electing progressive candidates, and fighting for LGBTQ equality through his volunteer work with the Stonewall Democrats.
In 2006, Garcia became active in the League of United Latin American Citizens, where he has helped build bridges between the Latinx and LGBTQ communities by taking on issues important to both communities: Immigration, HIV/AIDS, Civil Rights Discrimination, and Poverty. Garcia launched two councils in Dallas (Council 4871 in 2006) and Washington, DC (Council 11125 in 2014), which are both active to this day.
In 2020, he became the LULAC State Director for the District of Columbia. Garcia has been recognized for his civil rights work in Dallas (named the Grand Marshal of the Dallas LGBT Pride Parade in 2009) and most recently in Washington, DC (recognized as a Capital Pride Hero in the DC LGBT Pride Parade in 2018).
Each week, Garcia spotlights the work of LGBTQ and Latinx Community members in his weekly podcast,JesseGarciaShow.com, which was relaunched in December 2017 on iTunes, GooglePlay, and Soundcloud. The weekly show originally ran on public radio back in 2010-2011 in Dallas’ KNON FM radio station, as a public affairs program. In 2011, Garcia left the show to accept an appointment in the Obama Administration in Washington, DC, where he served the President as a special assistant in HHS Administration for Children and Families’ communications office. In that capacity, he worked on Latinx and LGBTQ outreach, which included preparing federal programs to serve new families once Marriage Equality was enacted in 2015.
Panel Information
Friday, August 14
3:00 PM EST
LGBTQ+
Mi Gente, Siempre: Addressing Transphobia and Homophobia in the Latinx Community
Sponsor: AARP & HRC
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