Boyle Heights actors revive National Coming Out Day

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Miguel Garcia's play, "Foundation for a Better Gay Brown Life," is led by a character called Gary the Gay-tino. He's a program officer at Garcia's fictional nonprofit. And he's exactly what he sounds like - Gay, Latino and a little nonsensical.

But that's one of the goals of this month's Brown & Out Theater Festival, which Garcia produced - to make today, National Coming Out Day, less daunting for the Latino LGBT community.

"I think comedy and making people laugh is sometimes the best medicine for depression," Garcia said. "Sometimes you need to heal the trauma through drama."

Garcia is the executive producer of the Brown and Out Theater Festival, which is in the midst of its second season at Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights. The show features eight playwrights, three directors and a cast of ten. It's about two hours long.

"There was some concern about whether or not the show was going to be well-received in our first year, but it was surprisingly well received. We sold out. People were kind of blown away that our little gay show did so well in a neighborhood like Boyle Heights," Garcia said.

This year, the Festival is coordinating with the Latino Equality Alliance, which works with the Latino-LGBT community all over the city, especially in Boyle Heights and East LA.

"Our shared values as Latinos is - family is huge. And it's huge for LGBT people too. They're our lifeblood, and we want to be part of the family. We see homophobia as something that splits families apart," said Ari Gutirrez, one of the organization's co-chairs.

The Alliance formed as a No on Prop 8 coalition four years ago to support legal gay marriage. They're still fighting to channel Latino-LGBT culture into political advocacy - as are Garcia and the shows he produces.

"Really, kind of hilarious comedy - I use that in order to talk about these political issues of marriage equality," Garcia said. "You make people laugh, but at the same time you leave them thinking, wow, I think they're bringing up really good points."

Brown & Out 2's curtain goes up tonight at 8. The festival closes next weekend.