Rudy Garcia of East L.A. says that when he was young, he never quite felt like the “normal” kid. Although his migrant parents pressured the youngest of their eight children to be the embodiment of the American dream, Rudy was more interested in punk-rock music, feminism, and ‘zine culture.
“Everything that I was into was also very not received well by my family, you know? They just thought I was crazy: ‘What are you doing?’ or, ‘How are you dressing? Oh, my God! You’re embarrassing the family!’ I would get angry at my mom, but it was this misdirected anger.”
Rudy’s hobbies soon became passions, and he created his own ‘zine, Scutter, which served as an outlet for creative self-expression as well as musical and cultural exploration. Rudy identifies this crucial time in his life as the point where he began to feel alive again.
It became more about expressing myself and really talking to musicians about homophobia, and feminism, and trying to change things, and then also just being really honest about my life, and my experiences, and hating my body slash trying to love my body.
This is Rudy’s true LGBTQ story:
“I’m from Driftwood,” a collection of “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer stories from all over the world,” appears weekends on LGBTQ Nation. For more true LGBT stories, or to share your own, visit “I’m from Driftwood.”
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