Two events in different parts of the country may be of special interest to Asian American and Pacific Islanders in the LGBT community.
In Chicago, the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance ( NQAPIA ) is celebrating its 10th anniversary at its national conference which runs through Sunday.
“For me, the fact that people feel like it’s a safe space where they can share about their journey of coming out [is important],” said I Li Hsiao to the Windy City Times.
Hsiao was born in Taiwan and did not come out as queer until college. He’s never felt there was an organization that he could identify with until he joined NQAPIA.
In San Francisco, a film focusing on Asian American LGBT families will be presented at the San Francisco Main Library on Saturday at 1pm in the Koret Auditorium.
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The film Living in the Shadows of Exclusion : Asian Americans at the Margins of Family, Faith, Immigration & LGBT Inclusion is free and will be followed by a panel discussion.
It’s one of the few documentaries to focus on Asian American LGBT families. You’ll meet four longtime couples and hear them speak out on Marriage Equality in the face of California’s virulent Proposition 8 campaign.
They speak of life and love, faith and family, and the challenges they faced under Prop 8, the U.S. federal Defense of Marriage Act, and immigration laws that have historically devastated LGBT bi-national families.
The film follows the families over several years of struggle culminating in the historic events of the June 26, 2013 Supreme Court rulings striking down DOMA and Proposition 8. This updated 54 minute version provides rarely seen historic documentary footage which should prove to be an important part of San Francisco, as well as California, Asian American, LGBT and immigrant history.
Families include Prop 8 litigants, Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis. Gaffney’s parents were one of the earliest Chinese Caucasian interracial couples to marry in California soon after the landmark 1948 Perez v Sharp ruling, overturning California’s anti-miscegenation laws.
Filipina/bi-national couple, Shirley Tan and Jay Mercado share their personal story as well. Tan faced the threat of deportation which threatened to break up their family of 27 years and separate her from her partner and their twin teenage sons.
Other families include Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women Transgender Coalition (APIQWTC) co-founder Crystal Jang and Sydney Yeong, and longtime Japantown residents and restauranteur Kenneth Kaji and Ryoji Imaizum.
For more information about the event, go to the event’s Facebook page.
For more coming out stories and to learn about the NQAPIA conference this weekend, go to the Windy City Times.
