Asian/Pacific Gays and Friends

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Asian/Pacific Gays and Friends (A/PGF)
Formation1980; 44 years ago (1980)
Founders
  • Morris Kight
  • Paul Chen
  • June Lagmay
  • Tak Yamamoto
  • Dean Goishi
  • Doug Chin
  • Roy Kawasaki
  • Terry Gock
Founded atLos Angeles, California, USA
Legal statusNonprofit organization
HeadquartersWest Hollywood, California, USA
President
Rummel Mor Bautista
Vice President
Skip Ober Miller
Award(s)2019 Rainbow Key Awards
Websitehttps://www.apgf.org/
Formerly called
Asian/Pacific Lesbian and Gays (A/PLG)

Asian/Pacific Gays and Friends (A/PGF) is a nonprofit social and cultural organization founded in late 1980.[1] Formerly known as Asian/Pacific Lesbians and Gays (A/PLG), the formation of the panethnic organization supported the nascent community of queer Asian American individuals and their allies in Los Angeles, California through monthly meetings, cultural workshops, and retreats.[2] While numerous similar groups convened after 1980, A/PGF played a pivotal role in the self-identification of a gay Asian-American community in Southern California.[2] As the oldest active organization of its kind, A/PGF continues to host monthly social programming including meals, screenings, and outings for its members.[3]

Background[edit]

Prior to the establishment of A/PLG, the cultural invisibility of homosexuality among Asian-American immigrants made it difficult to bring forth solidarity and organization within the community.[4][5] Reinforced by racial hierarchies of desire, where white-Asian coupling was deemed the relational archetype, intraracial dynamics between gay Asians were further strained by notions of sexual competition and rigid masculine-feminine binaries.[6] While "rice bars" lacked the social and political agency brought about by A/PLG, establishments such as Mugi's in East Hollywood and River Club in Los Feliz served as critical sites of assembly for gay Asians before formal organizations like A/PLG.[7] These bars, however, were not absent of the sexual hierarchies that rendered the self-identification of a panethnic gay community difficult: Frequented by rice queens who sought out Asians as sexual subjects, these sites of assembly reflected the broader struggle of Asian-Americans against reductive stereotypes and discriminatory body politics. Yet, the formation of A/PLG was accelerated through these collective spaces by the heightened visibility of gay Asian-American individuals to each other.[7]

Early years[edit]

Morris Kight, who is widely recognized a pioneer of the gay civil rights movement, convened the first meeting of Asian/Pacific Lesbian and Gays in his home.[6] The political activist was also motivated by personal reasons beyond his strong advocacy: Kight aimed to form an Asian community for his Japanese American partner, Roy.[6] Kight was instrumental to the establishment of A/PLG,[8] hosting the first formative meetings of the organization.[6]

As an alternative to bars, restaurants, and bathhouses, A/PLG provided an environment for gay and lesbian Asian-Americans to congregate and converse away from the appeals of cruising, smoking, and drinking. Paul Chen, a graduate student at UCLA, and June Lagmay were recruited by Kight to be the founding co-chairs of the organization.[9] After a few months, Paul Chen resigned from his position as co-chair, leaving the opportunity to create a formalized leadership board: Tak Yamamoto was elected as the organization's first president, Dean Goishi assumed the role of membership chair, and Doug Chin served as the treasurer.[10] As a major component of A/PLG's early outreach efforts, the monthly newsletter written by the organization's leadership engaged members with the broader Asian-American and gay communities, and informed the general body of current events on both national and global scales.[11]

The organization's first retreat in Big Bear was coordinated by Yamamoto in collaboration with Dr. Terry Gock, a postdoctorate psychology fellow at the University of Southern California. Gock was introduced to A/PLG through Paul Chen, and became invested in the idea of a retreat as the instigator of self-identification for gay Asian-Americans. For two and a half days, Gock led the first board of directors and other members in exercises centered around sexuality, coming out, and self-image. In response to the widespread subjugation of panethnic Asian identities within the dominant paradigm of American sexuality, Gock challenged the early members of A/PLG to reconcile with and confront their socialization as sexual subjects of the white male gaze.[10]

AIDS epidemic[edit]

By the mid-1980s, the AIDS epidemic propelled A/PLG into political action in response to the widespread tragedies that were occurring throughout the community.[12] Whereas the organization held minimal political agency and served mainly as a space for meeting other gay Asians in its early years, A/PLG created an HIV/AIDS committee to care for HIV-positive gay Asians who lacked the support system due to the internalized and externalized stigma against the disease. In developing from a committee within A/PLG to a full-fledged agency, the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team received funding from grants and donors. Its benefactors included the California Community Foundation and Special Services for Groups.[12]

Interracial and intraracial challenges[edit]

From the outset, non-Asian, white Americans actively participated in A/PLG. Although the presence of white Americans consisted mainly of rice queens and the partners of gay Asians who played a critical role in the organizing of A/PLG, their involvement in leadership was a contested issue as the organization continued to grow.[13]

Offshoot organizations[edit]

Various groups split off from the Asian/Pacific Lesbians and Gays, such as the Los Angeles Asian/Pacific Islander Sisters (LAAPIS), which was formed by a group of women.[14] Before disbanding in 1999 due to a decline in participation, LAAPIS focused more on outreach within AAPI communities than in white gay spaces and provided a space for lesbian and bisexual AAPI women independent from established communities in West Hollywood.[15]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Sueyoshi, Amy (December 31, 2022), Crawford-Lackey, Katherine; Springate, Megan E. (eds.), "Remembering Asian Pacific American Activism in Queer History", Identities and Place, Berghahn Books, pp. 130–172, doi:10.1515/9781789204803-008, ISBN 978-1-78920-480-3
  2. ^ a b Wat, Eric C. (2002). The making of a gay Asian community: an oral history of pre-AIDS Los Angeles. Pacific formations. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-7425-1109-5.
  3. ^ "Asian/Pacific Gays and Friends - Los Angeles". www.apgf.org. Retrieved November 21, 2023.
  4. ^ Wat, Eric C. (2002). The making of a gay Asian community: an oral history of pre-AIDS Los Angeles. Pacific formations. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-7425-1109-5.
  5. ^ Sueyoshi, Amy (April 1, 2016). Yoo, David K.; Azuma, Eiichiro (eds.). Queer Asian American Historiography. Oxford University Press. p. 275. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199860463.013.38.
  6. ^ a b c d Price, Astra (November 12, 2021). "Terry Gock". The Outwords Archive. Retrieved November 21, 2023.
  7. ^ a b Wat, Eric C. (2002). The making of a gay Asian community: an oral history of pre-AIDS Los Angeles. Pacific formations. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-7425-1109-5.
  8. ^ Luckenbill, Dan (2015). "Los Angeles". GLBTQ Social Sciences. Retrieved January 9, 2024 – via EBSCOHost.
  9. ^ Funk, Mason (April 3, 2017). "June Lagmay". The Outwords Archive. Retrieved November 21, 2023.
  10. ^ a b Wat, Eric C. (2002). The making of a gay Asian community: an oral history of pre-AIDS Los Angeles. Pacific formations. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. pp. 121–124. ISBN 978-0-7425-1109-5.
  11. ^ Wat, Eric C. (2002). The making of a gay Asian community: an oral history of pre-AIDS Los Angeles. Pacific formations. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-7425-1109-5.
  12. ^ a b Wat, Eric C. (2002). The making of a gay Asian community: an oral history of pre-AIDS Los Angeles. Pacific formations. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. pp. 149–150. ISBN 978-0-7425-1109-5.
  13. ^ Wat, Eric C. (2002). The making of a gay Asian community: an oral history of pre-AIDS Los Angeles. Pacific formations. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-7425-1109-5.
  14. ^ Faderman, Lillian; Timmons, Stuart (2006). "'Our Own'". Gay L.A. Perseus Books. pp. 280–299. ISBN 9780465022885 – via EBSCOHost.
  15. ^ Kenney, Moira Rachel (2001). Mapping Gay L.A. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. p. 195. ISBN 9781566398848.
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