Jose Anton Vargas Opens Up About Beg Undocumented and Gay

Contents:

• UNDOCUMENTED, GAY, AND EXCLUD: JOSE ANTON VARGAS
• LISTEN TO JOSE ANTON VARGAS OPEN UP ABOUT BEG UNDOCUMENTED AND GAY ON THE LGBTQ&A PODST
• THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985
• JOSE ANTON VARGAS, UNDOCUMENTED GAY JOURNALIST, DETAED TEXAS
• ATHLETICS - JOSé ANTON GAY
• LEARN HOW TO PRONOUNCE JOSé ANTON GAY

UNDOCUMENTED, GAY, AND EXCLUD: JOSE ANTON VARGAS

"I would actually argue that now that I've e out about the undocumented thg, I'm tryg to unrstand the gay thg, " he says. "I thk I went to a gay pri para maybe once my life.

Nothg was iend, Manny, is one of my few gay male iends. I don't have a lot of gay male iends.

LISTEN TO JOSE ANTON VARGAS OPEN UP ABOUT BEG UNDOCUMENTED AND GAY ON THE LGBTQ&A PODST

I n't jt be expectg iends to be there for me and then I'm not there for them bee I'm too by livg my prsn and livg my And you wre that g out as undocumented was a much bigger al than g out as gay. My Catholic, Filipo fay was like, "What is this gay thg?

JAV: I was the first openly gay stunt at my high that I've e out about the undocumented thg, I'm tryg to unrstand the gay thg. I thk I went to a gay Pri para maybe once my life. I don't know what gay Pri is.

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

I'm still kd of nfed by gay Pri. I me out of necsy bee if I had not e out as gay, then my grandfather's plan was for me to marry a woman who is a U.

"I would argue that I'm probably still the closet about the gay thg bee I'm still alg wh that. I don't know what that really is for I didn't realize you were gay until I read your book.

Past guts clu Alok Vaid-Menon, Pete Buttigieg, Laverne Cox, Lili Rehart, and Roxane Gay. Out as a gay man sce he was 18 years old, Vargas attend San Francis State Universy on a scholarship, then was hired directly out of school as a staff wrer for The Washgton Post, where he ultimately won a Pulzer Prize for Breakg News Reportg 2008 as part of the team that vered the shootgs at Virgia Tech prt and onle.

JOSE ANTON VARGAS, UNDOCUMENTED GAY JOURNALIST, DETAED TEXAS

And as stands, Documented actually posns Vargas's g out as gay as the "easier" g out, pared wh tellg his iends he is undocumented. Although he was the first openly gay stunt at his Mounta View, Calif., high school, when Vargas me out his junr year, 1999, he says he was almost universally accepted by his peers.

"When I was 16, and I found out I was undocumented, or 'illegal, ' around that same time, bee of AOL chat rooms I knew that I was gay, " Vargas explas.

"So there was a moment my life, between the ag of 16 and 17, about a year and a half, where I was closeted about beg gay and beg undocumented.... I end up g out of the other [closet], bee was jt easier [to e out as gay].

ATHLETICS - JOSé ANTON GAY

"And even though he grew up admtedly privileged suburban Northern California, Vargas says he still ternalized the antigay, anti-immigrant msag that permeated his world.

"When you're a gay person of lor, there are many stggl to al wh.

LEARN HOW TO PRONOUNCE JOSé ANTON GAY

"Admtg that he has only been to one official Pri para -- a iend took him to San Francis's Pri shortly after he me out when he was a teenager -- Vargas still believ most anized Pri paras are exampl of "jt how rporate 'gay' has bee. "Especially the lennial gay generatn, that is the most diverse that 's ever been -- this is a really big challenge for , " he explas.

"It's not jt Ameri that is changg, gay Ameri is changg. "When was that beg gay this untry was a mental fect -- was a psychologil imbalance? "As a gay, undocumented person of lor -- who has not only a llege gree but an illtr reer -- Vargas explas that his experience of Ameri has been one of nnectg the dots of his seemgly disparate inti.