Moises Serrano has many titles. He is a son, a brother, a partner and a student. His documentary, Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America, which premieres September 1 on the Logo TV channel, makes clear that he is also a brave social justice advocate. Forbidden documents portions of Serrano’s life, as he navigates society as a queer and undocumented man.
“There will always be an aspect of fear to coming out,” says Serrano. “But I think at least for me I had to do it. I didn’t see any other option. I was really at this moment in my life where it was sink or swim. I was just tired of hiding who I was and tired of living a lie, both as a straight man and a documented man. For me it was really a point of liberation.”
The documentary sheds light on the harsh realities that plague undocumented families and young people in the United States. Forbidden puts faces to the misconceived narratives that have been created about undocumented immigrants and families, while also raising awareness of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that currently protects undocumented youth who came to America as children, from deportation. The Obama-era policy is in danger of being rescinded under the current Trump administration.
“To a certain degree I always heard, ‘No tenemos papeles’ which means, ‘We do not have papers.’ But, of course, I never really understood the ramifications of that,” says Serrano.
In 1991, when he was just a little over one year old, Serrano and his family left Cancun, Mexico, and migrated to the United Sates. An unsafe and difficult decision that many immigrant families make, in search of a better life and opportunities. Serrano does not remember much about the migration to America, but he does recall having a “normal American childhood” while growing up in Yadkin County, in North Carolina, which he describes as a rural, somewhat southern experience.
It was not until after graduating from high school in 2007 that he began to understand what it meant to “not have papers” in the United States.
“When the United States started to take away driving privileges from undocumented immigrants, barring undocumented immigrants from going to college, that’s really when I found out the full ramification.”
