Rebecca Sawyer is a queer hapa feminist/activist living in the Washington, DC area. She is one of two co-chairs for the DC chapter of NAPAWF.
When I received the email to guestblog for NAPAWF on feministing, I immediately volunteered to write on issues impacting queer Asian Pacific Americans (APAs). As a queer hapa feminist and one of several frequent commentators on all things queer for NAPAWF-DC, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to educate others on queer APA issues. Then, as I mulled over it a bit more, I realized, damn, that's a lot to cover.
And if you think about it, it really is. If you, like the fierce women of NAPAWF, understand that reproductive justice is a queer issue, just as ending employment discrimination is an APA issue, and that passing hate crimes legislation is a feminist issue, just as immigration is a queer issue, etc., etc., etc., you realize that I could present an encyclopedic volume on precisely all those issues facing queer APAs. Instead, I'd like to talk a little bit about the importance of defining our work and our communities.
I received an email just the other day announcing the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is releasing a new study on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer APAs. The press releases says the study, Living in the Margins (released on May 10), found "75 percent of respondents reported experiencing discrimination and/or harassment based on their sexual orientation and 85 percent reported experiencing discrimination and/or harassment based on their race or ethnicity." [Check out the full report online at the Task Force's website.]
This does not and should not come as a surprise to anyone. Especially when one considers the recent racist and homophobic remarks of the likes of Rosie O'Donnell and Isaiah Washington.
From that email, this stood out: the study's author, Alain Dang, states "these findings and others add to the growing body of evidence that support the need not only for community introspection but also for legislative intervention."
I agree. As a community working towards social change, we need to think about what's working and what's not.
For one thing, we're still not making that concrete individual impact. On top of all that activisty jargon of ensuring intersectionality in our work to create social change, we need to learn how to speak plainly about what this means for your ordinary, run-of-the-mill person. We need to share our stories with other people. We need to share our experiences as domestic workers (as the women from Casa de Maryland did with members of NAPAWF-DC recently), as queer APAs (as the women of Asian Pacific Islander Queer Sisters did with advocates at Asian Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project), and as immigrants (like Larry Chang, a gay Chinese-Jamaican man and a political refugee, did with members of the DC community).
For me, it means sharing my story as a proud, out, hapa feminist. It means telling my story of where I come from, where I am, and where I'm going.
What's your story and who are you telling it to?
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thanks for this piece, rebecca (and jessica). i think it's so important that people understand how powerful telling your story can be, especially in the LGBTQ community. Research shows that people are more likely to vote for pro-equality issues and candidates if they know the stories of three of more LGBTQ people. It's incredibly scary sometimes, but being as out as you safely feel you can be and telling your story to anyone you can has such an amazing impact.
I like the touch on what's working and what's not. As an activist in the queer community, I've learned that messaging around equality and fairness doesn't get very far- it's appealing to emotion that works: "you know me, you know my family, why would you do something that you know would hurt us?" it's something that doesn't make sense to me, but it's easy to understand that logic obviously doesn't do it for a lot of people.
My work involves travelling the country and teaching LGBTQ parents and allies how to be advocates for their families in their communities, and a huge piece of that training is teaching them how to tell their family stories effectively and timely. Sometimes all you have is two minutes in an elevator to talk about your family. i think one of the most important pieces of telling your story is telling folks what they can do to help your family- not things like "be supportive, be understanding..." that stuff is empty crap and doesn't mean anything, we need to ask people to do real tasks, like calling legislators or making sure their workplace has an anti-discrimination policy.
and now i'm writing about my work, at work, but not acutally doing work. oops. great piece, i'm lovin' the "voices of.." so far =)
excellent, rebecca, great to see you on this site!
the voices of queer apa women are the ones that need to be heard, not just on panels and conferences and symposiums, but also within our community. because outside of the queer apa community, we still run into marginalization, being pushed to the side, or considered as afterthoughts to the more general, well-known umbrella of what people consider gay or feminist.
as i look back on activism in the queer apa community, especially in washington d.c., i hope to witness more frequent, deliberate sharing of our voices with each other, today, and in the future. yeah, some of us consider ourselves as "ordinary, run-of-the-mill", but the voices in our stories, whether told in congress or over coffee hour are what empowers a community and makes it strong and heard and visible by all. as activists, we need not listen to our community from the outside to learn from these powerful voices, but actively share with one another our stories to empower our community from within.
you've inspired me, rebecca! thanks for your story!
avelynn mitra
excellent, rebecca, great to see you on this site!
the voices of queer apa women are the ones that need to be heard, not just on panels and conferences and symposiums, but also within our community. because outside of the queer apa community, we still run into marginalization, being pushed to the side, or considered as afterthoughts to the more general, well-known umbrella of what people consider gay or feminist.
as i look back on activism in the queer apa community, especially in washington d.c., i hope to witness more frequent, deliberate sharing of our voices with each other, today, and in the future. yeah, some of us consider ourselves as "ordinary, run-of-the-mill", but the voices in our stories, whether told in congress or over coffee hour are what empowers a community and makes it strong and heard and visible by all. as activists, we need not listen to our community from the outside to learn from these powerful voices, but actively share with one another our stories to empower our community from within.
you've inspired me, rebecca! thanks for your story!
avelynn mitra