As Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” played at a recent Pride event at Inner City Struggle in Boyle Heights, Gabriel Vidal and his partner Karina Ramirez smiled, recalling the day they met.
It was 2016 and both were scheduled to DJ at the now-shuttered M-Bar on 1st Street. They quickly became friends over a shared love of Latin music, disco and dance, and later found they had more than just music in common.
Now, dating for close to two years, the couple has found that love for their art can go hand-in-hand with their activism, as they carve out space and take action to support their LGBTQ+ community.
Vidal, a queer trans man, is a community organizer for the GSA Network, a nationwide, student-led effort to unite LGBTQ+ youth and allies. Here, Vidal supports Black, Brown and queer youth through mentorship and by organizing fundraisers or racial justice initiatives across Los Angeles.
READ: They first bonded over food. Now this queer couple helps feed the Eastside community
“Community organizing raised me,” said Vidal, who credits his parents –political refugees during El Salvador’s violent civil war– with inspiring his activism. As a high school student in the San Fernando Valley, Vidal protested in support of immigrant and LGBTQ+ student rights, something he says molded his ethos to mobilize young people to stand up for what they believe in.
The 33-year-old, who DJs under the moniker of Gfunktrece, also works to archive music from queer and trans artists and little-known musicians across Central America to preserve their cultural footprint in music scenes globally.
“My queer and trans identity very much shows up in the way I collect records and the music I care to play,” said Vidal.
Ramirez, 30, performs as DJ Trankis for Chulita Vinyl Club, a DJ group made up of women, gender-non-conforming, non-binary, LGBTQ+ and people of color. They co-founded their own party collective, ¿A quien le importa?, to lift up queer artists and curate more “queer-charged” mixes.
“[This party collective] was how I segwayed into centering my own queerness and wanting to bring that community and having a space for that community,” said Ramirez.
Read: How a wife-and-wife team from Boyle Heights is teaching others to build generational wealth
Ramirez, who grew up in Cudahy, also works as an illustrator. Their designs span politically-charged illustrations and fliers for local events. Most recently, Ramirez launched a monthly illustrator and comics meetup for women and non-binary POC in East L.A.
Ramirez and Vidal say their relationship to music, DJing and art acts as its own form of resistance and activism.
“We’re in a time where there’s so many attacks on non-binary and trans people,” said Ramirez. “So I think the only other way to fight against it is to just continue to put out media and to spread awareness.”
We sat down with Ramirez and Vidal to learn more about the couples’ commitment to LGBTQ+ youth and how they incorporate queer voices and music in their mixes and artistry. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What’s the origin story? How did you two meet?
Ramirez: We actually met DJing at the M-Bar. We DJed together the day that we met. We just stayed friends and connected through DJing. And we would see each other through DJing but never really hung out or got to know each other further until two years ago.
Vidal: I think we were always friends and admired each other’s music interests and DJ style.
Can you speak to your queerness and how it intersects with your art?
Vidal: I play music that is less known and music that is underground or forgotten in the same way trans and queer people are marginalized. There are people who are trying to erase us or put us away, and so in that sense, centering music, the voices, the experiences, through records and music, centering the people that are not often heard, but should be heard.
Ramirez: I identify as non-binary so I don’t feel like I necessarily pertain to masculine or feminine genders. I tend to create characters or people that don’t necessarily fit the mold of, ‘I’m a man’ or ‘I’m a woman.’
How does your identity or your queerness inform your activism and desire to resist in this way?
Vidal: They’re one in the same. Being queer and trans means to resist. Dominant narratives have silenced and violently attacked Black, Indigenous, queer and trans people. To be involved is to defend the dignity of my own trans and queer identity… For the last 17 years, l’ve continued to be involved in several youth, gender and racial justice organizing initiatives in L.A.
Ramirez: I would say not as directly, but maybe from the sidelines. I feel like with artwork more specifically, I’ve created stuff for people or designed political messages in the art, or just DJ for community events and fundraisers.
Are there any things that you do that empower the queer community through your action or art?
Vidal: Recently, I started practicing archiving records. And I think finding records of queer and trans artists, or poetry or narratives is very, very important to have a physical form of media that represents the story and the experience and the perspective of trans and queer people. And that, I think, is something that I’m trying to hone in on more and try to do my part to uplift those stories.
Ramirez: I’ve worked on interactive pieces that explore gender identity for an art non-profit organization called LA Freewaves… I recently made a mix highlighting some of my favorite queer, trans, and even queens that make dance music. That was just kind of my little love letter to the community.
What in the queer or trans community gives you hope for this generation or the next?
Vidal: Seeing other queer and trans people take space, push the norm and be themselves has given me the hope and the feel to continue to also be my authentic self and have more courage to do that in the face of anyone or any situation.
Ramirez: Seeing people stepping out of their comfort zones to put out work or put out art or put out mixes, or become DJs or become creative people stepping out of capitalistic norms. Because I think for so long, it was like, ‘Go to school, get a job, form a family,’ and I think in this generation, they’re starting to realize that we don’t have to do that. I think it’s just good to see people coming together, doing creative stuff and stepping away from what’s expected of us.
