Empowering L.I's Gay Men of Color

When Sony Abraham, 23, came out to his parents in the summer of 2013, he didn’t know how they would react or what to expect. Coming from a traditional Indian background, he didn’t have the most supportive environment growing up as a gay man struggling with his identity, he said.

“In Indian culture, it’s not OK to be gay. It’s viewed as a sort of shameful secret, at least mostly because there is so little exposure,” said Abraham. “People don’t accept or understand that LGBT is who we are.”

After moving back to Floral Park from Buffalo, where he attended college, in January 2014, Abraham found the Mpowerment program. “I needed [to find] a group with kids my own age I could connect with,” he said. “You know, somewhere I could go and just feel comfortable to be who I am, and get away from the daily aggravations of just being a member of the LGBT community.”

Abraham said he’s now happy and studying engineering at Hofstra University.

Pride for Youth’s Mpowerment Program is designed to meet the needs of young gay, bisexual and transgender men, ages 17 to 26, with a special emphasis on African-Americans and Latinos. The program is based at the Long Island Crisis Center in Bellmore, and its main objective is to help young men stay free of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and to provide a safe space and support structure for gay, bisexual and transgender men in need.

“Now I feel like I could live a happy, healthy life, but I didn’t feel that way when I first came to Mpowerment,” Abraham said. “I saw no light, I saw no hope, I saw no dream. All I could think was, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to get through this, how am I going to get through school, get through life if I don’t have anyone supporting or understanding me?’”

“Mpowerment was like my solace,” he said. “It was that place I could go to hang out, just be myself, and talk to other people like me who understand and relate to what I’m saying.”

Thanks to the camaraderie and support that he received through the Mpowerment program, Abraham was inspired to get involved with another initiative called LGBT Immigrants of Long Island, which represents a community that he believes has too few advocates.