About Us
What We Care About
Every queer Latine person deserves to be seen and loved in their full truth, with a community that walks beside them in faith and joy. To feel whole and unconditionally loved is holy and life-giving.
The Challenge
Queer Latine people in the U.S. live under an administration that threatens to detain or deport us, denies gender-affirming care, and fuels violence against immigrants. At the same time, the churches many of us grew up in tell us our existence is a sin, demanding we fracture or erase parts of our identity to be loved. We need a loving, safe community more than anything.
Our Solution
In the face of hate and exclusion, Ministerio Latino offers radical welcome and love without limits. Our community walks together in acompañamiento, serving as a lifeline for queer and trans Latine people and newly arrived LGBTQ immigrants. We live God’s love by worshipping together, sharing mutual aid, and creating spaces for collective healing and celebration. Ministerio Latino is the only Spanish-speaking, queer-led United Church of Christ (UCC) congregation in the country.
Vision for the Future
We are queer and trans Latine people who walk together in faith and justice. In our communities and spiritual home we are seen, loved, and whole. Through this work, we all move closer to a world where everyone can live fully and freely.
Our Mission
Ministerio Latino exists to support queer Latine people and LGBTQ immigrants through healing, community, and justice. We embody God’s boundless love by showing up for one another in faith and action.
Our Values
Radical Acceptance
God’s love has no bounds and no gender. You are perfect and beloved exactly as you are. We foster a sacred space of warmth, safety, and belonging, where every person is fully embraced and seen.
Joy as resistance
In our community, you will always hear music and laughter. In the face of hatred and injustice, our joy is a revolutionary act.
Justice is faith in action
We live our faith by being our holy (and whole) selves, fighting for justice, showing up for one another, and building a world where all are free. We know that all struggles for liberation are tied up in one another, and we remain in solidarity with all global fights for freedom.
Acompañamiento (Moving with each other)
We move with each other in love. In community, we are strong. Together we save ourselves and each other, resisting oppression, and rejoicing with one another in God’s glory.
Radical Acceptance
God’s love has no bounds and no gender. You are perfect and beloved exactly as you are. We foster a sacred space of warmth, safety, and belonging, where every person is fully embraced and seen.
Joy as resistance
In our community, you will always hear music and laughter. In the face of hatred and injustice, our joy is a revolutionary act.
Justice is faith in action
We live our faith by being our holy (and whole) selves, fighting for justice, showing up for one another, and building a world where all are free. We know that all struggles for liberation are tied up in one another, and we remain in solidarity with all global fights for freedom.
Acompañamiento (Moving with each other)
We move with each other in love. In community, we are strong. Together we save ourselves and each other, resisting oppression, and rejoicing with one another in God’s glory.
Our History
2011
2011
- Rev. Rhina Ramos and Karla Peréz co- founded Ministerio Latino, answering a deep call of need in their own community. The first gatherings took place in homes and apartments with just a handful of people, united by a shared need for holy love and community.
2014
2014
- As the community grew, we moved our activities to the venue of our mother church, Plymouth UCC in Oakland.
2015
2015
- Ministerio Latino continues to grow and begins to feature joyful and vibrant live music at services.
2016
2016
- After the PULSE nightclub shooting in Orlando, Rev. Rhina Ramos travels to Florida to minister to grieving families and community members. Her presence offers comfort, prayer, and solidarity in a time of great need for healing.
- This marks an early expression of Ministerio Latino’s disaster response work, grounded in faith, love, and acompañamiento.
2018
2018
- Rhina leaves her secular job to pastor Ministerio Latino full-time, relying on her wife’s support and without institutional funding.
- Ministerio Latino becomes fiscally sponsored by Plymouth United Church of Christ, allowing the community to formally receive support and grow its reach.
- Ministerio Latino receives its first institutional grants, enabling Rev. Rhina Ramos to offer pastoral care and direct support (food, housing, counseling, and transportation) to two newly arrived immigrant families.
- Community members and supporters, including local LGBTQ groups, rally behind Ministerio Latino, organizing events and performances to help raise early grassroots funding.
- Ministerio Latino co-leads a delegation of LGBTQ+ faith leaders to El Salvador for the canonization of San Romero de América, deepening transnational solidarity with queer and trans human rights organizers.
2019
2019
- Ministerio Latino launches a second monthly community gathering in Fruitvale, creating new leadership opportunities and deeper connections among participants.
- Gains momentum with new grant funding and grassroots donations, including a half-marathon fundraiser by Rhina, with combined efforts helping Ministerio meet over 60% of its annual budget for the first time.
- We expand outreach to LGBTQ asylum seekers, offering spiritual sanctuary and material aid to those navigating the immigration system
- Ministerio Latino co-organizes "Rainbows Not Walls," an interfaith fundraiser and sponsorship drive that raises funds and finds housing support for trans women in ICE detention.
- Rhina supports Somos Familia in hosting their first statewide gathering of Latinx families with LGBTQ children, helping parents move from quiet acceptance to visible affirmation.
- Rhina participates in Spanish-language radio shows to bring affirming, queer-centered faith conversations to over 2,900 listeners across the Bay Area.
- Ministerio marches in the SF Trans March for the first time with their banner. Answering the “What do we want?” chant, with “¡Vivir!” (“To live!”)
2020 -2021
2020 -2021
- Ministerio Latino expands mutual aid during COVID-19, distributing support to 85 individuals and families (majority trans Latinas).
- Ministerio Latino strengthens partnerships with Oasis Legal Services, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, and other local churches and food pantries.
- Ministerio Latino shifts worship and Bible study gatherings fully online, expanding access for people across the Bay Area and beyond.
2022 - 2023
2022 - 2023
- Maintains a strong digital presence through virtual worship and weekly Bible study, where participants unpack scripture through a lens of liberation, healing, and queerness.
- Expands mutual aid work, supporting newly arrived LGBTQ asylum seekers with accompaniment to immigration hearings, support finding housing, and access to material necessities.
- Deepens relationships with partner organizations like Oasis Legal Services, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, Eden UCC, and CRECE, to better serve immigrants navigating legal, emotional, and spiritual challenges.
- Holds online and in-person gatherings to mark Trans Day of Remembrance, Pride, and other moments of both mourning and
2022-2023
2022-2023
- We maintain a strong digital presence through virtual worship and weekly Bible study, where participants unpack scripture through a lens of liberation, healing, and queerness.
- Ministerio expands mutual aid work, supporting newly arrived LGBTQ asylum seekers with accompaniment to immigration hearings, support finding housing, and access to material necessities.
- Ministerio Latino deepens relationships with partner organizations like Oasis Legal Services, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, Eden UCC, and CRECE, to better serve immigrants navigating legal, emotional, and spiritual challenges.
- Ministerio holds online and in-person gatherings to mark Trans Day of Remembrance, Pride, and other moments of both mourning and celebration.
2024 -Present
- Applies for new seed funding to support ongoing pastoral and material support for 15-20 LGBTQ immigrants each year including direct assistance with housing, transportation, medical care, and food.
- Offers spiritual refuge and healing spaces for queer and trans Latine people experiencing trauma from anti-trans legislation, immigration crackdowns, and extremist attacks.
- Continues to center joy, music, and cultural pride through retreats. drumming, dance, and storytelling
- Receives an important multi-year grant to build the infrastructure of Ministerio Latino. This allows us to create a new website, a base, and document our history
- Ministerio Latino receives the status of full standing as a church by the United Church of Christ,
- Receives an important multi year grant to build the infrastructure of Ministerio Latino. This allows us to create a new website, a armin El Salvador and grew up a hold, playful, and curious kid, database, and documerit our history ans and stirring up fun with her brother At At 14, she made the MEYNEWrch by dhte Kiraith, promising God
- Applies for new seed funding to support ongoing pastoral and material support for 15-20 LGBTQ immigrants each year including direct assistance with housing, transportation, medical care, and food.
- Offers spiritual refuge and healing spaces for queer and trans Latine people experiencing trauma from anti-trans legislation, immigration crackdowns, and extremist attacks.
- Continues to center joy, music, and cultural pride through retreats. drumming, dance, and storytelling
- Receives an important multi-year grant to build the infrastructure of Ministerio Latino. This allows us to create a new website, a base, and document our history
- Ministerio Latino receives the status of full standing as a church by the United Church of Christ,
- Receives an important multi year grant to build the infrastructure
of Ministerio Latino. This allows us to create a new website, a armin El Salvador and grew up a hold, playful, and curious kid, database, and documerit our history ans and stirring up fun with her brother At At 14, she made the MEYNEWrch by
dhte Kiraith, promising God she’d go
2024
2024
- Ministerio applies for new seed funding to support ongoing pastoral and material support for 15-20 LGBTQ immigrants each year, including direct assistance with housing, transportation, medical care, and food.
- We offer spiritual refuge and healing spaces for queer and trans Latine people experiencing trauma from anti-trans legislation, immigration crackdowns, and extremist attacks.
- Ministerio Latino continues to center joy, music, and cultural pride through retreats, drumming, dance, and storytelling.
- We receive an important multi-year grant to build the infrastructure of Ministerio Latino. This allows us to create a new website, a database, and document our history
- Ministerio Latino receives the status of full standing as a church by the United Church of Christ.
- Rhina publishes her first book, In My Heart, A Volcano: A Memoir in Vignettes, the book contains the extraordinary stories of ordinary people. The book was originally written in Spanish and published in 2024 by Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen (MUPI), San Salvador, El Salvador. It is now available in English through its U.S. publisher Riot of Roses.
2025-Present
2025-Present
- Rhina is awarded as a “Holy Troublemaker” by the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network.
Leadership
Rev. Rhina Ramos
Co-founder and Pastor
Rev. Rhina Ramos was born in El Salvador and grew up a bold, playful, and curious kid, always asking big questions and stirring up fun with her brother. At 14, she made the treacherous journey north with her aunt and brother to reunite with her mother in New York. The trip was dangerous, but Rhina held onto her faith, promising God she’d go back to church if she made it safely. She kept that promise.
Landing in Long Island brought culture shock. To overcome it, she found community in her Salvadoran neighbors and a welcoming Baptist church where her love of faith deepened and her passion for justice began to grow. Over the years, Rhina navigated law school, activism, counseling, divorce, coming out, and confronting the kind of religious rejection too many queer people face. In law school, she volunteered for an openly queer woman whose work in public interest was often dedicated to helping immigrants, further forcing Rhina to challenge her own perspectives on religion, sexuality, and community.
Her lifelong search for meaning and community led her to seminary and, eventually, to her true calling: founding Ministerio Latino in 2011. Since then, she’s become known as the ”pastor of the queers,” offering spiritual care, mutual aid, and holy mischief wherever it’s needed. Another fun nickname is “Holy Troublemaker,” an accolade she was awarded in 2025 by the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network.
In 2024, she published her first book In My Heart, A Volcano: A Memoir in Vignettes. The book contains the extraordinary stories of ordinary people. People who survived violence and war, women who liberate themselves from abuse, and the memories of a Salvadoran girl that inspire hope and triumph. The book was originally written in Spanish and is now available in English as well.
With her wife Shinobu cheering her on, she continues to build the kind of community she wishes she had growing up: one where queer, trans, and immigrant folks can be fully themselves and fully loved, con pelos, señales, y todo.
In 2024, she published her first book In My Heart, A Volcano: A Memoir in Vignettes. The book contains the extraordinary stories of ordinary people. People who survived violence and war, women who liberate themselves from abuse, and the memories of a Salvadoran girl that inspire hope and triumph. The book was originally written in Spanish and is now avilable in English as well.
With her wife Shinobu cheering her on, she continues to build the kind of community she wishes she had growing up: one where queer, trans, and immigrant folks can be fully themselves and fully loved, con pelos, señales, y todo.
Our Mother Church
Plymouth Church has been an LGBTQ+ Open and Affirming congregation for more than 30 years. We embrace diversity and affirm the dignity and worth of every person created in the image of God. We honor the guiding principle that discrimination is incompatible with Christ’s message of unconditional love. We welcome members and friends of Plymouth Church who self-identify as LGBTQ+ persons. All are welcome and we encourage you to participate in all aspects of Plymouth life and service
Funders and Supporters
