Media

Gay Asian Americans meet to organize

By Gary Barlow

Staff writer

Chicago Free Press

Published October 27, 2004

Gay Asian and Pacific Americans in Chicago met at Soul Café in Edgewater Oct. 19 to talk about visibility, identity, advocacy and building community and coalitions.

“We have a lot to do around being gay in the Asian community. I also feel we have a lot of work to do around being Asian in the gay community,” said Glenn Magpantay, co-chair of Gay Asian and Pacific Islander Men of New York.

Magpantay was invited to speak to the for-now informal group by Karl Kimpo and David Amarathithada, who said discussions with friends led them to want to find a way for gay Asian and Pacific Americans to have an organized advocacy presence in Chicago.

“What I’d eventually like is something that’s social and political, so that we can have advocates in the community, so that we can feel more connected,” Amarathithada said.

Magpantay’s strongest advice to the 20 or so attendees was short and simple.

“Just do it,” he said. “You just need to do the work. The other thing, I think, is having a balance of the social activity and the advocacy work.”

Magpantay talked about how GAPIMNY is structured, the programs and advocacy it organizes and issues it deals with, internally and in relation to the larger gay community, the larger APA community in the United States and U.S. society in general.

“Asians are so incredibly diverse,” Magpantay said. “Our cultures are incredibly different. Our ages are different. The question is how do we bring these issues together.”

GAPIMNY, he said, has found common interest among gay Asians and Pacific Americans from diverse backgrounds on several issues: immigration concerns, race-based discrimination and stereotyping, media representations of gay issues in the Asian American press and the lack of APA representation in the GLBT media and GLBT organizing.

“In the gay community Asians get left out,” Magpantay said. “Immigrants get left out. Gay organizing in this country is done in English. Is being gay just a white thing? …We wish that more gay groups were willing to talk about immigrants.”

He detailed the role GAPIMNY members played in organizing a successful protest against Details magazine earlier this year, when the publication ran a feature titled "Gay or Asian?" The article, gay APAs said, demeaned Asians as "exotic chattels from far off lands and Asian men as passive and effeminate."

"We saw racial caricatures in this that really stereotyped Asians-that you couldn't be gay and Asian and proud, that if you were gay and Asian, you could be mocked," Magpantay said.

The protest generated more than 20,000 complaints to Details, forcing its editor to apologize for "crossing a line that should never be crossed."

“Part of what we were really concerned about was the impact it had on young Asian American men," Magpantay said.

Magpantay also talked about how GAPIMNY has organized internally, including its decision to allow only Asian and Pacific Americans in most of its discussion groups and general meetings, while keeping social events open to all.

"We get a lot of criticism...because we exclude people," he said. "We really do struggle with that, but we need to find our own identity."

In March, Magpantay said, GAPIMNY and other groups organized a milestone event, the first Queer Asian Pacific Legacy conference. More than 400 attendees traveled to New York University to network and organize.

After Magpantay spoke, attendees indicated a strong interest in continuing the discussion and organizing effort in Chicago. Denys Lau, a co-founder of Asian Queers United for Action in Washington, D.C., who now lives in Chicago, said it would be important to organize with strong community input.

"There's this issue of going out and trying to build the group and going out and meeting the needs of the community," Lau said.

Amarathithada said he would continue to facilitate the effort by fostering discussion through an online listserv and helping to organize future meetings.

"Chicago has its own culture and we need to create our group within that culture," Amarathithada said.

Reaching OUT: Gay Asian Organizing

By David Keating

Identity Magazine

Published January 2005

When Karl Kimpo moved to Chicago last year, the first thing he did was search out the local gay Asian and Pacific Islander group.

“I was looking forward to doing some community outreach work with GAPIC, Gay Asian Pacific Islanders of Chicago,” he said. “But when I got here I discovered that the group no longer existed.”

In fact Kimpo, an HIV Project Coordinator with the Asian Health Coalition of Illinois, said he was shocked to learn that there was no community group for gay Asian and Pacific Islanders at all.

“There are other cities in the U.S. that are much smaller yet they have been able to sustain a queer Asian and Pacific Islander space and organization,” Kimpo said.

Although Chicago has a fairly large API population, ( 4.3 percent of Chicago is API compared with 3.6 percent nationally ) , it has no exclusively gay API organizations or social spaces, whereas cities such as New York and San Francisco have several gay API organizations and even bars which cater exclusively to gay APIs. [ There is Asians and Friends Chicago for Asians and their allies. ]

After feeling frustrated with the situation, Kimpo decided to team up with his friend David Amarathithada, another administrator in the HIV health field, to start a gay API group in Chicago.

“I was never too involved in Asian or queer culture, but Karl was heavily involved with both things when he was living in Ohio,” Amarathithada said. “He sparked my interest and we started to talk about forming a group.”

Kimpo, who is of Filipino descent, said gay Asian Americans find themselves in a unique situation because they are a double minority He said they face difficulties that are unique to the Asian community.

“The family unit is very strong in a lot of Asian communities,” he said. “There’s a notion that you have to represent your family’s reputation, which is a big contributing factor for a lot of gay Americans to stay in the closet.”

Amarathithada, who is of Laotian decent, agreed. “Asian cultures are very communal in nature,” he said. “There’s such a strong emphasis on family and tradition, so it’s hard to come out as an individual.”

On the other hand, Kimpo said that once gay APIs do come out they face discrimination and a lack of representation within the gay community.

“It’s very difficult to fit in, because the gay community [ of those who are out of the closet ] is so predominantly Caucasian,” he said. “Asians in general are starved for positive images of themselves in the media, and this is especially true of gay media.”

Kimpo also said being a gay Asian male can be difficult because many gay men, including Asian men, say they are only attracted to white men. “A lot of guys will say ‘I’m not attracted to Asian guys, but I’m not racist.’ I remember times when I was young, looking into the mirror and thinking my nose would look better if it were shaped like my white friend’s who lived down the street. Now, when I look back on those times, it’s hard to say I wasn’t subjecting myself to my own internal racism. I was ashamed of my own cultural features of my face,” he said.

Amarathithada said he felt setting up a gay API group was important because it would help gay API men counter stereotypes.

“Queer APIs are perceived as submissive or effeminate,” he said. “We’re often perceived as sex objects and not as thinking, breathing, educated queer API men. I think that we don’t challenge others with this perception, and we sometimes feed into it. That’s one reason why we wanted to start the queer API group, so we can erase this myth and challenge this sexual perception.”

The group’s first meeting was held in October at Soul Café in Edgewater. Around 20 people attended and Amarathithada said he was surprised by the high turnout.

“I honestly thought we would get a lot less, just because I didn’t know how big of a queer Asian community there was in Chicago,” he said.

Kimpo, however, said he was not surprised. “Chicago has been without a exclusively gay API group since 1998,” he said. “Chicago has reached a critical mass of gay and lesbian APIs, and we saw that in the high turnout. We had a former member of GAPIC there, the New York co-chair of GAPINY [ Gay Asian and Pacific Islanders of New York ) , and a former member of AQUA D.C. [ Asian Queers United for Action, based in Washington, D.C. ] .”

I Li Hsiao, who moved to Chicago from Taiwan in 1980, attended the first meeting and was excited by the group’s mission. “I think it’s important because gay Asian people need to know that there are other queer Asians out there,” he said. “It’s also important when they come out to their parents, because they can say ‘look, there are other Asian people who are queer.’”

Amarathithada said he knows that there is a great deal of work ahead.

“It’s very challenging to try to organize APIs because we don’t have one common theme, like a queer Black group would have because of their race, or a queer Hispanic group would have because of language. We don’t have a defined culture, language or heritage, because we all come from different backgrounds.”

The group will soon have a mission statement, choose an executive board, and come up with a name. Anyone interested in learning more about the group should e-mail Opmik75@gmail.com.

Asian Gays Gather Again (excerpt)

by Lola Lai Jong

Windy City Times

published May 18, 2005

Greetings! I’ve been away from Chicago for awhile, and now I’m back. Today I’m talking with I Li Hsiao, who, with Lance Chen, Pauline Park, and their friends, banded together to form GAPIC, Gay Asian and Pacific Islanders of Chicago, in 1996.

I Li: After a hit-and-run accident in October of 1998, I kinda came out to my parents. They wondered, ‘Wow, how come there (are) so many men visiting our son in the hospital? And they were all so nice!’ (When) I got out of the hospital, I live(d) ... in my parents’ home. That’s why/when I came out to them. Of course, as I predicted, they didn’t accept it (very) well.

My mother thought it was a phase ‘That cannot be possible!’ [ laughter ] And my father, who is quite well educated, said, ‘It’s American. It’s a Western thing.’ I thought, ‘Wow, there were queer people in China for centuries—’ Chinese people are big on saving face, so they don’t report that much about gay people in the papers or other scholarly journal(s) . (This) made it difficult to come out to my parents.

I came out to my sister years ago, before the accident. She’s fully accepting, (and) that makes me feel embraced and welcomed... When my sister got married 11 years ago, she didn’t change her last name—knowing I’m queer, (and) won’t have babies.

I realize(d) it was quite a shock for my parents. They got their panties all tightened up! [ Laughter ] I think it’ll be a slow process for them to accept. Also, I believe two big things: I’m the only son, (so) of course, they want me to pass on the (family) name. The second thing is, my parents want to save face, so it’s impossible, or hard, for them to tell their family that they have a son who’s queer.

L: They have their own coming out—

I Li: Yes Yes. I can just see at a dinner party ... it would be a great conversation if they tell their family, “Oh, my son sucks dicks.”

Coming out is really about one’s own comfort with his/her own sexuality. Don’t worry about pleasing your parents. The reality is, one will live longer than his/her parents. There’s no reason to be in the closet until they pass away. If one is a “late bloomer”, it’s a shame to be captivated by fear. My dad recently clipped (and gave me a) couple (of) articles from the Chinese paper that talked about honor and respect. I feel (I would be) —disrespectful and dishonoring if I didn’t tell them the truth about my sexuality. I was raised with the principle of honesty. It would be so wrong if I had to lie. My sexuality is a big part of who I am.

I came out to myself, maybe, around 11 years old. I knew I liked boys before I immigrated here (from Taiwan) in 1980. The first priority after coming to the U.S. was to learn the language. We went to the Chinese Church because of the language—that was the connection. I did have several flings when I was in high school, but nothing major.

L: —and makes the full spectrum of who you are invisible. There’s so much more to a person than race.

I Li: Being Queer and Asian, I feel like I’m a double minority. Then, of course, since the accident—I was in a coma 5-1/2 days, then a wheelchair, a walker, and now a cane—I feel like I’m a triple minority—Queer, Asian, and also disabled. Well, this is a good and challenging place where I’m at. I realize, there must be some other disabled people who are also queer. I’m thinking, ‘Wow, who’s reaching out to them? And how will they find their outlet?’ For me, this disability is only temporary. I keep getting better.

In many ways, I’ve already surpassed my doctor’s expectations. They never told me, ‘You will walk without a cane.’ ... Of course, they don’t want to disappoint their patients. In the physical therapist’s mind, they may have a limit of how much I will progress. I think I’ve passed that limit ... .

It’s beautiful to realize there are queer API’s —lesbians, gays and bisexuals who are banding together. I totally agree there are times when we need to have separate meetings—where there’s only women, or only men, but there are also times when it’s definitely possible for us to all meet together. That will facilitate the needs of many, especially in the Midwest, unlike the East or West coasts—where there are many queer API, enough people to form separate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and ( transgender ) groups.

In addition to having a safe space for queer APIs, I also want to say that as a queer API coalition, at times, it would be great to have social events with allies and other people of color ... . It’s all about working together.

To me, the Midwest is more conservative than either coasts. But then, in many ways, I realize we are fortunate to know lots of activists in the Midwest who are willing to connect and make it happen.

The QAPI Interim Taskforce is continuing to meet to create a mission statement and choose a name. Interested API LGBTQ&Q can contact David Amarathithdam, amara66@yahoo.com, cell ( 312 ) 952-9918; Karl Kimpo, opmik75@gmail.com, cell 216-965-6232; or Michelle Baladad m@bwinfinity.com, cell 847-899-5172.

Come together: Meeting sets course for formation of official Asian, Pacific Islanders group

By Gary Barlow

Staff writer

Chicago Free Press

Published April 6, 2005

Queer Asians and Pacific Islanders moved closer April 2 to forming an organization in Chicago that would raise their profile and serve as a political and advocacy voice in the broader GLBT and Asian American communities.

“Visibility is really important, along with the sense of being able to advocate for the best interests of Asian and Pacific Islander gays and lesbians,” said Karl Kimpo, who helped facilitate the meeting in a private home on the West Side.

It marked the second such meeting in recent months, sparked by discussions Kimpo, David Amarathithada and others began last year about forming a group. A consensus seemed to be emerging among those who attended last week’s meeting that the proposed group’s most visible role would be to bring a distinctive GLBT Asian and Pacific Islander voice to the table on political and social justice issues in Chicago’s GLBT community.

“What does it mean to be a person of color in the gay and lesbian community when you’re talking about what being queer is,” Kimpo said.

Attendees also indicated that the group would add a progressive GLBT voice in Chicago’s large and diverse Asian American populations.

“In the broader Asian American community as well, there are issues as for us being transgendered or gay in the Asian American community that need to be addressed,” Kimpo said.

Both men and women in the GLBT API community have become involved in the process of forming the group, which has generated a wide-ranging exchange of emails in recent months. But for some, getting together to discuss the group face-to-face was clearly energizing.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in a room full of so many queer Asians in my life,” said Liz Thomson. “To be here is pretty exciting.”

Attendees represented a broad spectrum of Asian and Pacific Island cultures, Amarathithada noted.

“I’m actually really impressed with all the diversity I see around me,’ he said.

Denys Lau, who was active in a similar group in Washington, D.C., before moving to Chicago, said he was struck by the organizational skills and focus attendees are bringing to the process here.

“I think there’s an instant cohesion that’s rare,” he said. “People here are very experienced working in other organizations.”

Kimpo stressed that the group is coming together by building consensus on such issues as its missions, goals, membership and constituency.

“The next step here is to create different versions of the prioritization that we’ve been doing here today,” he said at the end of the meeting.

The group plans to focus on points of agreement from last week’s meeting via email, with a goal of meeting again in a few weeks to try to reach a consensus that would lead to the formal establishment of the group, including choosing a name.

“Hopefully we can get a name out of this sooner rather than later,” Amarathithada said.

30 Under 30 Award

Windy City Times,

Published June 20, 2007

DAN RODRIGUEZ-SCHLORFF

27, MINISTER

The Rev. Dan Rodriguez-Schlorff is an activist and ordained minister. As an activist, he crusades for marriage equality, ballot fairness, media democracy and single-payer universal healthcare. He has broken several glass ceilings in Illinois politics, as the youngest person to run for Illinois State Treasurer; the first openly gay candidate to run for any statewide office in Illinois; the first person of Asian descent to run for a statewide executive office in Illinois; and, by gaining well over 150,000 votes in the general election, helping the Illinois Green Party become a constitutionally “established” party in spite of the state’s fear-based election laws.

From 2003-2006, Dan co-chaired the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry Chicago. As a political activist and financial resource, Schlorff has appeared on radio and television programs, including News at Noon ( WGN-9 ) ; Chicago Tonight and Candidate Free Time (WTTW-11 ) ; and Chicago Public Radio.

As a minister, Dan marries same-sex couples, preaches across the Midwest and serves Broadway United Methodist Church as a candidate for authorized ministry. While already recognized by the Congregationalist movement as an ordained minister, Dan also seeks fellowship with both the Unitarian Universalist Association and Metropolitan Community Church.

Dan holds degrees from Meadville Lombard Theological School and Olivet Nazarene University. He is a certified senior advisor and is soon to complete his training towards becoming certified also as a financial planner. Dan sings with the Windy City Gay Chorus and resides in Lakeview. He works with Bradford Community Church (Unitarian Universalist) as Director of Religious Education and with Adair Associates as Director of Resource Development.

DID YOU KNOW? Dan once felt called by God to marry outside his gender and travel across the country with his wife and seven children, preaching the “purifying” gospel of Jesus Christ.