By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 07 May 2010 05:49:02 +0000

Thank you, Pauline, for this amazing speech. I wish I could have been there to listen to you speak! So much of what you said is particularly relevant to the queer API space that I am involved with; as a member of Cal Q&A and someone who is hoping to get more involved in the space, I have been thinking about the balance between the political, the support, and the social. I know that as a Q&A space, it is inherently all three of those things, both because of why it was established and how those qualities are innately embodied in the Q&A identity. Just the statement that there needs to be a space for the often quieted and forgotten queer API voice – that it exists in the first place – says so much about why the intersection of those identities need to be represented.

At the same time, I had to think about what Q&A, as a college organization, is for? I see QACon as political, social, and support at the same time; it’s a political statement of presence, a time for a hidden community to get to know itself, and a place for people to build a collective strength. Q&A has been all of those things, and the balance between the three is extremely delicate. So how can we, say, launch the space into something that is bigger than it is right now? And do we even want to do so?

I also am pleased to learn more and more about the queer API past every single day. It would be a powerful message to send out to misinformed API people – that the API heritage is rich with queer history and content. Actually, it could be a message to so much more than those of Asian identity; one way to really put ourselves out there in the LGBT sphere would be to affirm the role that the queer has had in our history.

Comments on: Articulating Identity, Organizing Community: Re-Launching the Queer API Movement

By: Thomas