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Looking at the life and achievements of Drago Renter\u00eda, it is nearly impossible to pinpoint a single professional path he has taken, or list only one thing he \u201cdoes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The 50-year-old Chicano, who has lived in the Mission since 1999, can list among other things, professional photographer, activist, organizer and executive director on his resume. His dedication to social justice and helping give voice to marginalized groups, however, has been a focal point of his life for decades.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI \u2018came out\u2019 when I was just 12 years old in the late \u201870s, in very conservative El Paso, Texas,\u201d said Renter\u00eda, who is a trans man, but identified as a lesbian woman before he transitioned. \u201cThere were zero resources. The only gathering places we had back then were gay bars. It was a very challenging and dangerous time to be \u2018out.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Renter\u00eda said he has been an activist ever since, but the road has not been easy. There were push backs often caused by the lack of understanding from communities where anything other than the heterosexual norm was unacceptable.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAt one point in high school, I became a born-again Christian and tried to \u2018pray the gay away,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cOf course, that didn\u2019t work. You can\u2019t really change who you are inside and instead of seeing my queerness as something evil, I ultimately chose to embrace, love and honor who I was and that was the best decision I ever made.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Another large part of Renter\u00eda\u2019s identity is that he is Deaf.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI contracted spinal meningitis [at age 11],\u201d he said. \u201cThis resulted in a high fever and within two days, I lost 100 percent of my hearing\u2014just like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Martha Lechuga, 49, met Renter\u00eda in high school. Lechuga, who had been in the United States only a few years and didn\u2019t know sign language or English, began to communicate with him through writing in Spanish. She said that it didn\u2019t take long before she knew she wanted to be a part \u00a0of his life and they have been friends since.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLife always has a way to put the right people in our path,\u201d Lechuga said. \u201cDrago \u2026 has not only influenced my life but made a complete change in the way my life could have gone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Lechuga was the first person in her family to be openly gay, something they did not approve of at all. It was thanks to Renter\u00eda\u2019s support that she began to accept herself as a person and her sexuality, and also why she became a sign language interpreter.<\/span><\/p>\n Becoming an activist<\/b><\/p>\n After high school, Renter\u00eda left his hometown and moved to Washington, D.C., to attend Gallaudet University, a college for deaf people.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGallaudet was an amazing experience. Virtually everyone on campus signed [American Sign Language],\u201d he said. \u201cImagine being able to take courses taught by people like you who speak your language. Imagine the ability to easily do simple everyday things like ordering food in the cafeteria or just asking someone you come across on campus for directions in your language. So many people take the privilege to do things like these for granted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Although he had been engaged in the queer community and an activist since his teenage years, it was in college he began to \u201cunderstand the power of organizing,\u201d and became the president of the college\u2019s LGBTQ group.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAgain, it was not an easy time to be out,\u201d Renteria said. \u201cWe dealt with so much homophobia on campus. Just being out was a radical act.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Renter\u00eda transferred to U.C. Berkeley after two years, to study journalism and women\u2019s studies. After college, he founded the Deaf Queer Resource Center, a volunteer-run national organization, which provides information, peer counseling and educational workshops.<\/span><\/p>\n It was through the organization that Vanessa Sandez, 41, first got in contact with Renter\u00eda. Sandez, a Chicana lesbian, said she was not out at the time, but was coming to terms with her feelings when she found the resource center\u2019s website and reached out to Renter\u00eda.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI call him \u2018my brother,\u2019 \u2018mi hermano.\u2019 He calls me \u2018hermana\u201d Sandez said. \u201cHe is my chosen family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Renter\u00eda currently works as a photographer, documenting the social injustices he has fought against most of his life, a job that, as a deaf person, can be challenging.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t always wear a press pass and I sometimes wonder if folks who see me at these events think I\u2019m an interloper or something because I don\u2019t chant or clap with them (how can I when I don\u2019t know what\u2019s being said?),\u201d Renter\u00eda said. \u201cOn the bright side, I\u2019m able to focus 100 percent on documenting what I see and creating the photographs that I create.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When police are present at a protest, Renter\u00eda must be extra alert. \u201cIf police give disperse commands (which I obviously can\u2019t hear) they may think I\u2019m not complying and take action accordingly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Love is love<\/b><\/p>\n Renter\u00eda met his partner Jennifer Mantle, 41, who worked as a sign language interpreter, through mutual friends. Mantle said she felt a special connection and asked him out.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMaybe I\u2019m wrong, but I think I am pretty unique and that not only do I love my partner as a partner, but I admire him as a human being,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I feel really honored to walk this path in this life with him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Renter\u00eda transitioned from female to male in the 1990s. As a response to the lack of resources available for transgender people, he has worked to educate people on the subject and help others with the aim to create change.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs someone that\u2019s very private, it meant stepping out of my comfort zone,\u201d he said. \u201cI have no regrets and would do it all over again in a heartbeat.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n After meeting Mantle, the couple began presenting together. \u00a0\u201c[As] the partner of a trans man, my transition has also been part of her journey,\u201d Renter\u00eda explained.<\/span><\/p>\n The couple began co-presenting an educational workshop called \u201cThe T in LGBT: A Deaf Man\u2019s Journey from Female to Male,\u201d about 15 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s just a true social justice warrior,\u201d Sandez said. \u201cHe is definitely a gem for the community. And when I say \u2018for the community,\u2019 I cannot just say for the LGBTQ community, or the deaf community, [but] the community in the Mission. It\u2019s the global community, the trans community, the Chicano\/Chicana\/Latinx community, or people of color. The way that he reaches out to make things happen, despite having so much on his plate, it just amazes me. He is very inspirational.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [su_carousel source=”media: 38510,38511,38512,38513,38515″ limit=”65″ link=”lightbox” width=”800″ height=”540″ responsive=”no” items=”1″] Looking at the life and achievements of Drago Renter\u00eda, it is nearly impossible to pinpoint a single professional path he has taken, or list only one thing he \u201cdoes.\u201d The 50-year-old Chicano, who has lived in the Mission since 1999, can list among other things, professional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":38510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3929],"tags":[16880,5397],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-38536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-drago-renteria","tag-lgbtq-en","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n