In a historic first, Vietnamese American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered [LGBT] plan to march as part of Little Saigon's Tet parade this coming Saturday, Lunar New Year Eve. While they have marched in Orange County before (at former the OC Pride march in Irvine) and in San Jose, this is the first time they plan a march in the heartland of the overseas Vietnamese community in the U.S.
On KUCI's Subversity show Monday 8 February 2010, at 9 a.m., we talk with CSU Northridge scholar Gina Masequesmay [
http://www.csun.edu/~gm61310/] about queer life within the Vietnamese American communities. The CSU sociologist did her Ph.D dissertation [
http://antpac.lib.uci.edu:80/record=b2850344~S7] at UCLA in 2001 on one of the groups marching, Ô-Môi, which came out with a zine in 2005. She is the lead co-editor of a new collection of essays, Embodying Asian/American Sexualities (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2009) [
http://antpac.lib.uci.edu:80/record=b3886095~S7].
Four groups plan to join together in this march, according to march organizers, embracing 'marriage equality' in the context of the Prop. 8 controversy.
Song That Radio [
http://www.songthat.com/] is a grass-root organization which has the dual task of operating a radio program to focus on enhancing community awareness of LGBT issues, with the aim to create social change in attitude towards LGBT people and to organize social and political events that advocate, support and empower the Vietnamese-American LGBT community by increasing LGBT visibility and inclusiveness. Its goal is to improve the quality of life of Vietnamese LGBT people by reducing and eliminating the disparities within the Vietnamese-American community in dealing with LGBT issues.
Ô-Môi is a support group for lesbians, bisexual women, and transgender of Vietnamese descent. Its goal is to provide a support and resource space for queer, female Vietnamese to come out and network.
Gay Vietnamese Alliance [
http://www.gvalliance.org/] provides a safe and supportive environment for gay, bisexual, and transgendered men of Vietnamese descent from all over the world to network, voice issues, promote wellness and foster leadership.
The Vietnamese Lesbian and Bisexual women Network and Friends is a support network of women, young and old alike, who provide support to Vietnamese women who are questioning their identities or simply proud to be lesbians or bisexual women.
The Subversity show airs on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, and is simulcast via
http://kuci.org. Podcasts are available later.
The march is slated to begin after 9:30 a.m. Saturday 13 February 2010 at Bolsa and Magnolia in Westminster, California.
Thanks for listening.
Daniel C. Tsang
Host, 'Subversity' on KUCI
'It's like Disorientation on the radio!' -- UCI
Disorientation Guide 2009
88.9 FM in Orange County/
http://www.kuci.org
subversity@kuci.org