Our Stories: As Told By Welcome to Chinatown’s Queer Volunteers
This Pride Month, we’re celebrating the beauty of the LGBTQIA+ Asian community with the stories and perspectives of our Queer Welcome to Chinatown volunteers. Popular culture has branded Asianness and Queerness as clashing identities — however, they live in harmony.
Kim Sandara, Graphic Designer
Pronouns: She/They
What does it mean to you to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community as an Asian American?
It means I get to have multiple roots to return to and so much more community to be part of. It warms my heart to meet more Lao/Viet people, LGBTQ+ people and how those two communities interact/when they overlap. There's a lot of pain in being in these identities but so much more joy when diaspora and disconnection becomes a yearning to connect and spread love.
What does intersectionality mean to you during Pride Month?
It means understanding people as more than one note, that identity is complex and worthy of fully understanding/always keeping yourself opened to learning.
How did you overcome hardships in the Asian American community (general or personal) as a queer individual?
I am constantly navigating these hardships, it's not a one-time event. It takes time and grace.
What is a piece of advice that can empower queer Asian American youth?
Don't believe in the western notion that things can only be polarized as good or bad. At least with coming out, there is a gradient of experiences that are all valid to have.
Do you have an influential LGBTQ hero?
There are so many. I love following Janelle Monae and Rina Sawayama. I also love Antonius Bui. Their work always inspires me to push harder and open myself up.
Describe some of the LGBTQ people who are important in your life, what do they mean to you?
Adriana Regalado has been a big influence on my self-esteem. She was my boss at the National Museum of Women in the Arts but became one of my warmest friends and someone to look up to. I also love Les Talusan the DJ, she is like an older cousin to me. Both these people are so encouraging and push hard for the community and making sure marginalized people feel uplifted and seen. I admire people who do their best within their power to uplift.
How are you celebrating Pride month?
Protesting and joyfully eating all my favorite foods/ spending time with friends/ supporting other queer creatives
What does it mean to be an ally?
Always questioning authority, your own biases, and giving grace for mistakes and learning
Melody To, Marketing, Strategy & Media
Pronouns: She/Her
What does it mean to you to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community as an Asian American?
It means viewing the world through an intersectional lens. I am a queer woman of color, and the world has not been easy on me. I know no other experience, and I am empowered by my culture and my sexuality to bridge those aspects of my life together.
What is a piece of advice that can empower queer Asian American youth?
It is not your job to educate others that actively don’t want to change. It is not your responsibility to emotionally drain yourself in order to be accepted, whether that pushback comes from your family or your friends. You should be surrounded in a safe environment where you never have to justify who you are.
How are you celebrating Pride month?
I came out in high school, but this year is the first year I’ll be waving the lesbian flag!
What does it mean to be an ally?
To be an ally is to support BIPOC in the LGBTQ+ community. It goes without saying that people who support the diversity within the queer community also need to be actively anti-racist.
Dominic Sonkowsky, Community Affairs Liaison
Pronouns: He/Him
What does it mean to you to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community as an Asian American?
Being queer and Asian American means you almost certainly face hostility in communities that are supposedly ours. We face racism within the queer community, and queerphobia within the Asian American community. It is incredibly difficult for us to find a community made for us specifically. It's the furthest thing from fair, but our identities mean it's up to us to do the work, despite what we face, to create positive community spaces for ourselves. After all, who else will be willing and able? There are folks doing that kind of work - BUBBLE_T is just one example - but we all need to do more.
Sunny Ng, Business Development
Pronouns: He/Him
What does it mean to you to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community as an Asian American?
Being Asian-American in the LGBTQ+ community means having to go out of my way to find spaces where I feel welcome and valued as equal. It also means being in a constant struggle to be heard and be respected as an individual rather than a stereotype.
What does intersectionality mean to you during Pride Month?
During Pride Month, intersectionality means taking up space and representing my identities so that stories from those that look like me don’t get lost in the shuffle.
How are you celebrating Pride Month?
Having been vaccinated and seeing COVID restrictions being lifted, I’m looking forward to celebrating Pride in person around others, dance my ass off in spaces that celebrate people of color.
Kevin Lee, Marketing Manager
Pronouns: He/Him
What does it mean to you to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community as an Asian American?
It's having to overcome so many layers of adversity that makes finding your chosen family that much more meaningful.
What does intersectionality mean to you during Pride Month?
It's about being open-minded, understanding no one's journey is exactly identical, and realizing the complexity that is the spectrum of all aspects of life.
How did you overcome hardships in the Asian American community (general or personal) as a queer individual?
True ride or dies. Without the support of others, who knows if I'd be here or be where I am now.
What is a piece of advice that can empower queer Asian American youth?
Live your life for yourself and not anyone else, including your family. Honor your ancestors and heritage but understand you are the future and do not need to fit in a box.
Do you have an influential LGBTQ hero?
More recently, everyone behind Pose and Legendary.
Describe some of the LGBTQ people who are important in your life, what do they mean to you?
They stick by you even if you decline all their invites to party, have your back regardless, do not judge and will be there for you at any moment. They mean the world.
How are you celebrating Pride month?
Continue being queer af in hopes that it gives someone else permission to be themselves.
What does it mean to be an ally?
Doing something about it. Caring enough to take action for the community, not just the individual. Take the time to want to understand the issues and showing you're here to fight with us.
Harry Trinh, Head of Creative
Pronouns: He/Him
What does it mean to you to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community as an Asian American?
For me, it means that we are constantly working to carve out space for ourselves. Up to this point, the mainstream LGBTQIA+ community has been represented by white cis-males despite some of the most radical folks in our community are black trans people. What that means is that as a member it’s my duty to remind our community members that yes, their lived experiences are valid but also others are equally as valid and we MUST give them the space they deserve.
What does intersectionality mean to you during Pride Month?
For me, it means true representation! from my experience being queer as an Asian American is often written off as " An invention of the West" but during Pride this month is the platform to show the world Queerness existing throughout time in Asian History and that we are not something next but something that of oppressed or silenced.
How did you overcome hardships in the Asian American community (general or personal) as a queer individual?
For many queer folks, the hardship never ends. For example, I still have relatives that ask me "oh is this your girlfriend (points to a random girl they don't know) and I have to just politely nod no. How I overcome these daily hardships is knowing I have a strong group of Queer Asian American friends that can emphasize with that experience and the select group of family who I know are always speaking up on my behalf of me when I'm not around. The hardship doesn't end but there are moments of relief.
What is a piece of advice that can empower queer Asian American youth?
We exist, we are valid, and we are NOT an invention of the West. We have been around for centuries and your being isn't what is breaking traditional family values and practices.
How are you celebrating Pride month?
For myself, I am actively wanting to decentralized the mainstream corporate Pride merch, activities, and etc. I am celebrating by the support my BIPOC queer artists at their shows, going to queer-owned small businesses, and just celebrating that I've made it this far!
What does it mean to be an ally?
As a queer person we need allies to give us space to tell our stories. We appreciate them talking to their circles of friends about queerness and letting be the introduction to what it really means to be in the LGBTIA+ community. It’s going past just going to drag brunch and the pride parades and it's donating and support LBGTIA+ causes throughout the year. It is standing up for us in places where we were not invited.
