Brief History of Asian Pacific American Queer Activism

Hello and Happy Pride Month! At the time I am writing this, it is midway through June, and I took it upon myself to learn a little more about Asian Pacific American involvement in queer activism. Keep in mind I am no expert in this topic so I highly recommend that you read the links I’ve included below to further your learning experience.

Asians in America are commonly perceived as “closeted” throughout early Asian Pacific American (APA) history. This is due to the fact that Asian Americans were already marginalized and besmirched for their race. The first wave of Asian migration during the nineteenth century brought many queer people to the country, but their stories have been rendered mostly invisible due to a heteronormative recounting of history. It is thanks to the amazing efforts of LGBTQA+ scholars that we are able to recall some of the earliest traces of activism in the United States.

One of the first Asian American individuals to identify themselves as explicitly queer was Kosen Takahashi, who was an illustrator for one of San Francisco’s earliest Japanese American newspapers called Shin Sekai. To journalist and editor Blanche Partington, he declared himself an “utmost queer Nipponese.” He was known for his intimacy with fellow Japanese immigrant Yone Noguchi and would often write to Partington about their close relationship. Noguchi himself was a poet who was also known for his relationships with men including Charles Warren Stoddard.

Margaret Chung is known for being the first known American-born Chinese physician who also established one of the first Western medical clinics in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Although she was never officially out, many of her peers speculated that she might have been lesbian due to her more masculine attire and the sleek blue sports car that she drove. Chung notably raised funds for World War II and supported the formation of the Women’s Army Corps as she wanted to join the US Navy herself. Even though she initiated and lobbied congressional legislation to establish the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services, due to her race and speculation about her sexuality, she was never accepted to join when it was finally created.

When the rise of radicalism began in the mid-1950s with the Daughters of Bilitis (the first lesbian civil and political rights group in the U.S. formed), a Filipina by the name of Rose Bamberger played a pivotal role its formation. She and her partner Rosemary Sliepan invited a group of six women including Del Martin, and Phyllis Lyon to their home on September 21st, 1955. This specific meeting was for drinks and dinner but the second meeting on October 5th, once again at their home, was where they decided to plan their first official DOB meeting. Due to the organization’s eventual plan of welcoming men and heterosexual women to the group, however, Bamberger left the group in fear she would be outed to the public.

Numerous Asian queer activists and writers such as Daniel Tseng, Kitty Tsui, and Helen Zia disclosed the difficulties they had with progressive spaces being unable to accommodate people of color. Activist known as Gil Mangaoang commented on how he felt trapped between being in a homophobic Asian American political community and a racist LGBTQ community. The rise of the Asian American movement itself had many ideological origins that devalued same-sex sexuality.

Nevertheless, LGBTQ Asian Pacific Americans continued to devote to social justice and create new spaces. For example, Crystal Jang and her friends at the City College of San Francisco petitioned for the college to allow female students to wear pants and successfully changed the dress code. Jang even publicly spoke out against the Briggs Initiative in 1978, which would have legalized the firing of all LGBTQ teachers and those who supported them.

The 1980s was a period of time where many queer organizations began to form. Two mixed heritage Asian women, Katherine Hall, and Chea Villanueva formed the Asian Lesbians of the East Coast in 1983. A similar group known as Asian Pacific Lesbians and Gays was formed in Los Angeles in 1980. Queer South Asians also contributed fundamentally to the formation of numerous queer API community groups in the 1980s. Groups known as Anamika and Trikona were created to address the specific needs of LGBTQ people of South Asian descent from places such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and more. In response to the AIDS epidemic, Asian Pacific Americans formed the Asian AIDS Project in San Francisco. Kiyoshi Kuromiya founded one of the earliest and most comprehensive resources available to the public for treating HIV known as Critical Path.

Nikki Calma, also known as “Tita Aida,” is a Filipina transgender woman who became a community icon through her HIV/AIDS activism. She has worked with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the Filipino Task Force on AIDS, and the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness. She created many initiatives to combat HIV/AIDS in the 1990s and raised support in the trans community for the Transgender Law Center and the AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco. In 2008, she was one of the three featured women in the first API transgender public service announcement.

More API parents publically vocalized their support of their gay, lesbian, and bisexual children in the 1990s. The first known Asian parents in America to publically advocate for their gay children were Harold and Ellen Kameya. They were also actively involved in the community known as Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).

In the twenty-first century, Asian queer communities and engagement continue to grow. The aforementioned Crystal Jang was honored in 2013 by San Francisco pride in recognition of her contributions to the LGBTQ community as the first openly gay Asian teacher within the San Francisco Unified School District. In 2014, San Francisco AIDS activist George Choy was honored with a sidewalk plaque in the Castro District’s Rainbow Honor Walk.