Welcome to this week’s episode of NHLN Opinion+, a monthly program that is dedicated to discussing the concerns and opinions of New Hampshire’s Hispanic-Latino community.

Executive Director Hershey Hirschkop of Seacoast Outright returned to the program this week to share the work the organization has done in the past year in providing LGBTQ youth a safe space to explore gender and sexuality in a welcoming and understanding environment.

As a heterosexual man, and parent of a bisexual teenager, I discussed with Hirschkop resources Seacoast Outright also affords familial networks in supporting LGBTQ youth. “Helping parents get through this is important to kids feeling supported,” said Hirschkop. “We see parents, like you, trying to figure out, “How do I best support, my kid.”

SUGGESTION: All You Need Is LOVE

We also spoke about conscious consumerism beyond rainbow-washing. One Finance, a financial institution with banking services in Illinois has an initiative that displays someone’s chosen name on their bank card, in their account, and during all communication. The bank does not require legal documentation of a name change, does not ask customers for their gender, and only uses gender-neutral language both internally and externally.

“Naming, and how you identify and the pronouns you want to use are very personal,” she said in response to how important it is to help ease the burden on trans and nonbinary people from their dead name to their affirmed name. “When you erase that you erase the very being of who a person is.”

And for the benefit of members of our audience who are not familiar with the term dead name…dead name means the birth name of a transgender person who has changed their name as part of their gender transition.

Within a matter of months, One FInance was able to make it easy for customers to change their first name, no doctor’s forms, no driver’s license change required, just the opportunity to change their first name through a simple three-question form.

Seacoast Outright was founded in 1993 as an outcome of the “Respect for all Youthâ€� conference spearheaded by PFLAG—watch our interview with PFLAG-NH Executive Director here. Hirschkop said the volunteer-based organization has stayed true to its mission of serving, advocating for, and supporting LGBTQ youth within the Seacoast area and across New Hampshire since then. She explained that the nonprofit offers direct services to local youths but also heavily focuses on outreach and education within the greater community. Although the organization focuses on serving younger residents, it also offers groups and resources for parents, families, and older residents in general. Within the past year, the organization moved its support groups and events online to continue serving the public amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Resources mentioned in the video: 

Check out all the different support groups the organization currently offers here:

• https://www.seacoastoutright.org/services   

Access available resources through the link below. This list is continuously updated. 

• https://www.seacoastoutright.org/resources-1   

Learn how you can support Seacoast Outright at:  

• https://www.seacoastoutright.org/support-us 

Read their BLM statement: 

After reviewing all home loan data for 2013, 2015 analysis by attorney Christine Wellington of Derry concluded that ethnicity was the only variable besides household income that was consistently a significant predictor of loan denial.

“In short, in 2013, if you were Latino you were significantly less likely to have access to housing financing,� the report states. “This is true controlling for applicant gender; type of loan (origination v. refinancing); conventional v. government-backed; loan amount; race; denial reason; and geography.�

A report by the Concord Monitor finds that when the study was updated in 2020, Wellington and her associates noted that little had changed: “Our 2020 analysis echoes the findings of the 2015 assessment: People of color concentrated in the poorest neighborhoods still face the same obstacles outlined in 2015. By every measure, those neighborhoods faced conditions and access to opportunity far below the state average.�

According to the 2020 Census, Hispanics-Latinos comprise 7.6 percent of the population statewide, 21 percent in Manchester, and 23 percent in Nashua.

The Granite State News Collaborative used the HMDA database to analyze the lending patterns of the state’s top 20 mortgage lenders from 2018 to 2020 and found wide variation in denial rates.

CMG Mortgage, Freedom Mortgage, CrossCountry Mortgage, and Fairway Independent Mortgage all denied Hispanics-Latinos at more than twice the rates they deny whites, while Quicken Loans, HarborOne Mortgage, and Digital FCU had denial rates that were identical or within a few percentage points of each other. 

GSBC reached out to lenders with high denial rates for Hispanics-Latinos and heard back from several (see sidebar). Fairway spokesperson Alyson Austin offered an answer that was similar to what many others said.

HMDA data is “an appropriate first step in this type of inquiry,� she wrote in an email, but added, “additional analysis is needed to determine whether factors unrelated to race explain disparities observed in raw HMDA data.�

To read more about the analysis, reaction to the findings, read Discriminatory home lending persists in New Hampshire.

Cover Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash

Iliana Barreto, Coordinator at Centro Latino in Manchester knows firsthand what it’s like for people who are not native English language speakers to be shamed. “Some feel a sense of embarrassment and some people are made to feel less than. You can get frustrated,â€� Barreto said in a recent episode of NHPR’s Visibles.

Barreto originally moved to Boston from Puerto Rico with her family and was the first to learn English. She grew up translating and interpreting for her parents. It’s a reality many children of immigrants in the U.S. live through.

The COVID-19 pandemic created new challenges for immigrants and refugees in New Hampshire seeking assistance to manage their health. Many rely on their children to navigate what can often be a frustrating process in getting information by phone or websites.

However well-intentioned, children who have to translate for their non-English speaking parents often face mental health struggles, according to a recent study. Children in these situations can typically feel like the roles are reversed. Kids are placed in a parenting role and have to make sure to “careâ€� for their parents. To ensure that they have what they need and that they can get by in a society where they don’t speak the language.

The same language barrier exists in telemedicine; a convenient and safer way to treat patients during COVID-19.

State Representative Manny Espitia (D) from Nashua, is one of the sponsors of H.B. 1390, a bill that would address language translation services in telemedicine.

Espitia told the Concord Monitor that coming from a Hispanic-Latino family where he had to serve as a translator for his parents when he was a kid, he knows the burden of not having an official interpreter.

“We want to make sure that every medical professional has access to translation service so that a patient can get the right information,� he said.

French is the leading foreign language, after

Spanish is the second most popular language spoken in New Hampshire, after English. 2.1 percent of state residents speak Spanish.

The New Hampshire House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee is expected to soon vote on H.B.1266, which opponents say would jeopardize the relationship between immigrant communities and local law enforcement.

“This bill would undo almost 20 years of work that we have done to foster trust in our police department,” said Eva Castillo, director of the New Hampshire Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees, one of the nearly ten people testifying against the bill at last week’s hearing.

Representative Tony Piemonte, Republican of Rockingham, sponsor of H.B. 1266, said illegal immigration jeopardizes New Hampshire’s safety and drains its resources.

The bill if made into law, would make it illegal for state or local governments not to adopt or enforce federal immigration laws; undocumented immigrants could be reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement by police.

Representative Maria Perez, Democrat of Milford, is opposed to the bill expressing frustration at “the broken immigration system” and the language used by Shari Rendall, director of state and local engagement at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a supporter of H.B. 1266.

“It will prohibit jurisdictions from employing dangerous policies that provide a safe haven or sanctuary inwhich illegal aliens can live or work without fear of apprehension,” said Rendall.

FAIR is designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a a hate group.

“It is unnecessary, confusing, and vague,” said Maggie Fogarty from the American Friends Service Committee. “If enacted H.B. 1266 would trigger the risk of increased racial and ethnic profiling, animosity, and distrust of those perceived to be immigrants.” Fogarty says people of color will be targeted by the bill.

Six percent of New Hampshire residents are immigrants, while 8 percent of residents are native-born U.S. citizens with at least one immigrant parent, according to the American Immigration Council. In 2018, more than 83-thousand immigrants comprised 6 percent of the state’s population.

The percent of the Granite State’s population identifying themselves as Hispanic-Latino increased by more than 60-percent (2010 Vs. 2020), and the population remains at 4.3 percent, reports the U.S. Census.

Immigration advocates are asking people against the H.B. 1266 to share their testimony online.

Cover Photo by Mitchel Lensink on Unsplash