GET ON THE BUS!

Okay, so I haven't posted anything queer or Asian lately, but this is something related to my hometown.... Philly. It's a shame I could not be there to rally, but if you're in the area, please show us your support.

GET ON THE BUS!!
Wed., April 8th @ 11a.m - Harrisburg

March 18th, 2009 - PA Gaming Board Control Press Release:

"The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today requested that representatives of the two holders of Philadelphia slot machine licenses appear before the Board at its April 8, 2009 public meeting and provide a full and complete update on the status of their projects."
Full Press Release: http://www.pgcb.state.pa.us/?pr=253

Why should you go?
1.) A trip to Harrisburg with AAU, Casino-Free, and the City-Wide Coalition
2.) To learn more about the plans Foxwoods has for Philadelphia
3.) You'll show the PA Gaming Board & casino representatives the strength of the community's opposition
4.) Be a part of the fight!

Buses leave 8 a.m. on 30th St. between Market and Chestnut Sts.
Tickets = $20 apiece sliding scale
Contact Asian Americans United at 215... to reserve seats today!

GET ON THE BUS! Contact AAU to reserve your seat!

seaQuel and PrYSM

Public trasnportation in Providence is tough on Sundays (RIPTA). I had to make my way over to PrYSM's office for a seaQuel meeting. seaQuel stands for Southeast Asian Queers United for Empowerment and Leadership. Here's their mission statement:

"provide a safe and supportive space for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, queer and questioning (GLBTQQ) as well as straight SEAA (Southeast Asian American) youth where they can lead healthy lives and develop their leadership and organizing skills to become involved in creating social change in their communities. seaQuel builds the leadership skills of SEAA youth, brings cross-cultural and inter-generational dialogue on sexuality to the SEAA community, and seeks to challenge the larger GLBTQQ community's definition of diversity."

This was my first seaQuel meeting ever, and my first time ever at PrYSM's Office. I definitely had a warm welcome. The staff are professional, but the space defintely can make one feel at home. From my understanding, seaQuel meeting runs bi-weekly.

For more about PrYSM click here.
For more information about seaQuel click here.
seaQuel is also on Myspace!

For A Queer Friendlier ECAASU

I spent all of last weekend at my first East Coast Asian American Student Union (ECAASU) conference ever. I had wanted to go for 4 years, but everytime they held a conference, I was either out of the country or had no funding. This year's ECAASU was held at Rutgers Univeristy, and they have a decent sized Asian/Asian-American population. It was the first time for me being in a banquet all filled with Asian American faces. Although there was such a large turnout, I felt a little unnerved by lack of queer sensitivity.

The Gay Asian Pacific Island Men of New York (GAPIMNY) and the South Asian Gay and Lesbian Association (SALGA) did hold a town hall meeting as one of ECAASU's few, if not only, queer centric workshop. Ironically, the workshop listed right underneath it was the heterocentric titled workshop "Male Sexuality Workshop, a workshop geared towards women."
My biggest gripe would have to be with the social mixers that were held. At the mixer I went to, we played a game of Confusion (an icebreaker where one has a list of tasks one asks others to perform as a way to get to know people). In my own opinion, I thought the tasks were non-condusive for getting to know people, and were very heterocentric.

This got me wondering; Why are Asian and Asian American more conservative on the issues of sexuality and homosexuality? I think the first thing that comes to people's mind are conservative Asian families. In my experience, I feel a lot of homophobia is exhbited from Asian American males. I think it may have to do with the Asian American male community becoming hypermasculine in order to combat imasculating stereotypes. Sometimes this results in homophobic tendencies.

Ending on a positive note, I was glad to see Queer friendly keynote speakers and artists. Most notably was Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, a spoken word artist, in her shout out directed towards queer identified persons.

A Queer Asian Pacific Island National Conference

It's getting a late, but I wanted to post this conference on here before I lose the flyer.

The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) and the Pacific Northwest Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance are hosting a conference for queer identified Asian Americans (inclusive of South Asians) and Pacific Islander (API). It will be held between August 14 and 16th in Seattle, Wasington. Registration opens later this month (mid-march).

Seattle is far from the East Coast, but I hopefully will be saving enough money to attend this conference. For more information, click here visit their site under NQAPIA.

Asian-American Ivy League President

Jim Yong Kim will suceed James Wright as the 17th president of Darthmouth. He will be the first Asian-American to be president of an ivy league university. And guess where he graduated from... Brown University whose current President, Ruth Simmons, was the first Black Women to be President of an Ivy League university. I'm proud to see that more and more Asian/Asian Americans are holding important leadership positions and key roles in the US.

However, I do have to say I don't know much about him. I should probably do my research.

Click Here for the BrownDailyHerald article.

Self-Defense for LGBTQ

This is probably very awkward for a first entry:
We still have a long way in the war against homophobia. Just a few weeks ago in New York City (NYC), a man allegedly killed a man he had mistaken was gay because the man was walking arm-in-arm with his brother. I believe he is being charged for 2nd degree murder with hate-crime status. That reminds of what happened to me about two months ago in NYC. One of my best friends and I were walking home arm-in-arm in the cold, and as we crossed the street, a man in a car yelled out as us "fucking faggots."

Sometimes you might find yourself in one of these hostile situations, so maybe it isn't such a bad idea to pick up a few self-defense skills (remember SING from Miss Congeniality?). Project Connect and the Center for Anti-Violence Education (CAE) are holding two workshops on self-defense for LGBTQ identified persons at the Asian & Pacific Island Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA) . Click here to view the Facebook event information.

Click here for a CNN article on the alleged hate-crime above.