Reading and Discussion with Edgar Gomez

During my Central American Studies 115 class, the class was assigned to read a book
called “High-Risk Homosexual” by author Edgar Gomez. The book explained the life of Edgar
Gomez and the struggles that he went through including being gay, family acceptance, school
troubles, relationships, and much more. I genuinely enjoyed reading the book because of how
relatable Edgar Gomez made his book sound. It did not sound formal or argumentative but rather
explanatory and felt like a deep dive into his life. In the reading and discussion event with Edgar
Gomez, he started by reading a poem that he had written while we were all in our quarantine
years. The poem included repetition of the phrase “I love” and then followed it by whatever he
loved. It included favorite artists, clothes, feelings, and anything that makes a person feel like a
person. It was a long poem and took about half the class time, however, as I looked around to see
the reactions of others, I kept seeing smiles on people’s faces as if they related to him like I did. I
guess we all found Edgar Gomez relatable in some type of way. I saw how invested people were
in what Edgar Gomez had to share which made a heart-warming feeling take over the room.
Edgar Gomez would go so passionately into detail for everything. What interested me the most is
what he had to say about laws about LGBTQ communities and how there are changes being
made last year. I couldn’t tell if it was just me living in my own little world or if the news just
didn’t talk about it enough but I had no idea that the United States was barely coming out with
laws last year. It felt as though the problem of LGBTQ rights had been solved long ago, so it was
scary to believe that what Edgar Gomez was talking about wasn’t long ago. I’m glad that Edgar
Gomez enlightened me about what it was like being a hispanic LGBTQ man living in the United
States and though I could not relate to him completely, I still felt a strong connection and bond to
Edgar Gomez.