Celebrating My Identities

Image is a rainbow flag with “Hispanic Heritage” superimposed in the middle and the blue NAAFA logo in the upper left-hand corner.

By Clark Beltran

As America celebrated National Hispanic Heritage Month, it dawned on me that as a Latino gay man of size, only two of the three major aspects that make up my identity are celebrated. Gay Pride Month is celebrated each June, bringing the gay community together and allowing us to celebrate our uniqueness and strength to be ourselves in a slowly gay-accepting society.

Beginning on September 15th of each year, National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated into mid-October with various festivities honoring those who have made major accomplishments in the Latinx community, in addition to celebrating our culture via music, poetry, and dancing.

So what about celebrating being a person of size? Where is our Fat Pride Month where our society celebrates the accomplishments of those brave individuals of size who have succeeded in life educationally, financially, and spiritually in a world that tells us we can’t.

Last summer I attended NAAFA’s 50th Anniversary celebration conference in my hometown of Las Vegas. This was truly a life changing experience for me. I attended workshops where fat business owners shared their stories of success, college professors (like my dear friend Dr. Pattie Thomas) spoke on size acceptance, along with other fun events like an evening formal dance and a pool party.

Just being around other fatties who not only accepted their largeness, but actually celebrated it gave me pride and the confidence to embrace my fatness in a world that has a lot of catching up to do. Having said this, it is the work being done by beautiful people like my close friends Peggy and Darliene Howell who volunteer their time and energy to such a great organization like NAAFA that has given me, and countless others, the tools to accept and love myself (fatness and all) with the hopes of one day having a Fat Pride Month.

Clark Beltran is a Mexican-American gay male of size. Born and raised in Los Angeles California, he has lived in Las Vegas for over 20 years and recently graduated from Nevada State College with a Bachelor’s degree in History. Introduced to NAAFA and fat community via two close friends has changed his life by giving him the tools to accept and love his fat self and stop waiting for his life to begin until he’s lost weight.