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> Ana Lopez
 Courage in the Face of Discrimination
Ana endured a lonely and isolated childhood in East Los Angeles when she was outed
at 14. Rejected by her family and friends because of their strong Catholic beliefs and
disregarded by her teachers, Ana remembers, “I had no one.” Kicked out of the house
at 17 by a father convinced her “bad” example was turning her younger sister gay, Ana
coped by “cutting” or self-mutilating herself to “feel pain to numb the other pain I felt.”
She attempted suicide at 14 and 16. She turned her life around through filmmaking and
self-expression, following a classroom presentation by Reach LA, a youth media
organization. She wrote an article on being queer and attempting suicide that was
featured on NPR and has made five documentaries on life in East LA, which have been
screened nationally and internationally. Her film interviewing 12 queer students is now
being used to train teachers throughout the LA Unified School District. She founded
three programs at Reach LA including: “Queer Youth Nation,” a nationwide survey of
LGBT youth which has been screened at LA’s Outfest for the past three years; the “Be
an Ally” program, which works in schools to educate teachers and students about queer
issues through film “Reel Ghetto Queer,” a workshop to mentor queer youth in
filmmaking. Ana is committed to using her creative skills to build bridges with the
straight and queer Latino community and immigrant and non-immigrant communities.
Helping to financially support her family, for whom she feels a great deal of
responsibility, Ana works full-time doing graphic design for a community health center.
Her 21st birthday present to herself was a pillow, a luxury her family could never afford.
Her dream is to go to college and to pursue a career in filmmaking and communications.
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