CREATING COMMUNITY: QUEER ASIAN AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS IN THE ‘80S AND ‘90S

WRITTEN BY CHELSEA PADILLA

A lot of the inspiration for this zine, Queer Courage, was inspired by ads seeking written work for a lesbian and bisexual women-focused anthology nestled in old Asian American student publications from the 80s and 90s at U-M. When I stumbled upon these ads myself, I was immediately excited. I’d never heard of a collection like this centered on Asian Americans in the present day, so it felt really unexpected to find evidence of one in an archive. I remember taking a picture of the ad to send to my friends and the rest of UAAO. The ad itself was a small, rectangular box that took up only a quarter of a column. Bold text at the top of it read, “Call for Submissions: An Anthology of Writings by Asian Pacific Americans Lesbians. Deadline: Dec. 15 1991.”

This anthology, primarily edited by Sharon Lim-Hing, ended up being published as “The Very Inside: An Anthology of Writings by Asian & Pacific

Islander Lesbian and Bisexual Women” in 1994. Looking up the title on the Internet reveals that the anthology is over 400 pages long and features about 100 pieces of writing written by individuals from East, Southeast, and South Asia.

Although “The Very Inside” is definitely a massive, significant collection, it’s not unique in its focus on queer Asian Americans, even for the time. Alongside queer liberation movements, many different newsletters, magazines, and anthologies created by queer Asian Americans began to circulate across the country in the 80s and 90s. Through the circulation of these publications, queer Asian Americans were able to achieve a sense of community and support, which was incredibly vital at the time, considering that the Internet was nowhere near the same level of operation as it is today.

One of the most well-known newsletters is Trikone, which started as a newsletter and eventually became its own magazine under the same name. Trikone was founded by Arvind Kumar and Suvir Das, two queer South Asians, and was dedicated to LGBTQ+ people of South Asian descent in the San Francisco Bay Area. Trikone as a magazine had an international subscriber base and ran from 1986 to 2014.

On the other side of the country, Anamika was published in Brooklyn, New York, in 1985 — one year earlier than Trikone. Anamika was a newsletter dedicated to South Asian lesbians and bisexual women and was sent to women in South Asia for free, with its first issue being supported by Asian Lesbians of the East Coast — a group formed in 1983 in response to the LGBTQ+ community being dominated by white men. Asian Lesbians of the East Coast also published its own newslet- ters.

Often, many of these queer Asian American publications were self-published. For example, “Between the Lines: An Anthology by Pacific Asian Lesbian of Santa Cruz California” was self-published by C. Chung, A. Kim, A. K. Lemeshewsky in 1987. The preface of this anthology highlights the scale at which it was published, describing the anthology’s group as “small but growing” as they held weekly meetings at a local pizza place. The writers take care to mention that they all “talked story, planned, edited each other’s work, wrote proposals till 3 a.m., laughed, cried” and watched as their anthology came to be. In this sense, “Between the Lines” created community on the local level through meetings and the national level through circulation.

I’m sure that the nature of self-publishing has unintentionally obscured the names of many different newsletters and anthologies created by queer Asian Americans from this specific moment in time. I’m also sure that there are zines like this one out there somewhere, hidden in cardboard boxes or underneath dusty stacks of paper. Although their names might be unknown to us, I want to acknowledge their existence and impact on our community, and I hope that this zine follows their lead.

Sources

Bi Pan Library, “The Very Inside: An Anthology of Writings by Asian & Pacific Islander Lesbian and Bisexual Women” Trikone.org, “Magazine” Anderson, Shelley. Out in the World: International Lesbian Organizing. p. 20. Chung, Kim, Lemeshewsky, Between the Lines. p. 5

Reflections Of Queerness In Michigan And The Modern

WRITTEN BY SO JUNG SHIN

I have debated for weeks how to write this historical section. For one thing, I am not from the midwest, nor was I raised as an Asian American. The context I grew up in exists halfway across the world, far from here, and so this Asian American “lens” that I will use to sift through the articles on queer activism in Michigan and our campus is adopted, not inherent. Moreover, I am unfortunately unfamiliar with queer history, more specifically, queer Asian American history, in the United States. But as I chat with peers about queer Asian American activism, I realize painfully that not many of us are. The intersectionality of queerness and Asiannness is not taught to us, especially when these two identities pg. 7 are proposed as diametrically opposed. Self-education then becomes an active choice, and self-liberation is dependent on social location and access to resources. These are the heavy thoughts I carry as I write.

Queerness in Michigan has recently faced a win under the law with the Michigan house passing an amendment that “explicitly includes protections for sexual orientation and gender identity” with a bipartisan vote of 64-45 in favor (Human RIghts Campaign, 2023). This massive success can be attributed to decades of activism and grassroots movements, which dates back to the Christopher Street Detroit Celebration of 1972, “the first large public demonstration for gay and lesbian rights in Michigan.”

Its inception was organized under the Michigan Gay Coalition, including the Ann Arbor Gay Liberation Front and the famous Michigan queer activist, Jim Toy, who had previously established the Human Sexuality Office at the University of Michigan, what we now know as the Spectrum Center. Since then, historians have recorded, anthologized, and written about queer activism and art across the decades, as part of a “collective assertion of visibility”, as Retzloff would say.

Ann Arbor itself has also left its legacy in queer activism. In 1972, dozens gathered to celebrate one of the first Gay Pride weeks in the country. That same year, Kathy Kozecho was the first queer candidate elected to Ann Arbor City Council. Decades later in 2014, the city passed an anti-discrimination ordinance. Ann Arbor boasts their historically queer friendly spaces, through inclusive bookstores like Literati, gay bars including The Flame, and queer-owned restaurants such as Eat.

I suppose where I struggle to go now is where Asian Americans existed in these momen- tous occasions. Even under “Activism, Organizing, and Leadership within U-M Asian American + Pacific Islander Communities and Space” (2022), an ongoing collaboration between the United Asian American Organizations (UAAO) and the UM’s Asian/ Pacific Islander American Studies Program that aims to document the political history of Asian American and Pacific Islander students in our Ann Arbor campus, just one (1) article appears when one types “gay” or “lesbian” in the search bar – the word itself does not appear on the newspaper clipping, rather as a contributor. No results come up when one searches “queer”. This isn’t to say queer Asian American students did not study at the university, nor that they have not organized together, nor that they have not made any contributions. Rather, this is to say that the works of this demographic have been largely undocumented and underrepresented. Perhaps this is because many of us are not “out” to the public, to our families, a fear that is deeply entrenched in heterosexist traditions and a model minority myth that demands cisheteronormativity.

With this in mind, members on the board of UAAO realize the importance of documentation and remembering our history, especially as a coalition that centers on racial justice and social advocacy. Through our digitization and oral histories project, UAAO attempts to bridge the gap of what we know of queer Asian American history today, and what was forgotten not too long ago. This seventh edition of our zine focusing on queerness within our community emphasizes this goal even more so.

A number of board members identify as queer, and this intersectionality in our identities guides much of our programming and events in order to create a safer space for those who carry similar labels. Think: UAAO’s Desi Divine event during the Fall semester, a celebration of queerness within the South Asian community; semesterly open mics, where many of our performers identify as queer; graphic novel book club, including stories of queerness in Asia. These forms of activism, however, are not solely from UAAO. Queer in Color (2022), a special editorial pg. 9 curated by queer staff members of Michigan in Color, is a declaration of the creativity and voices of a much underrepresented minority. South Asian Awareness Network hosted workshops surrounding South Asian queerness, both in 2022 and 2023, together with UAAO to raise awareness on the experiences of queer folks. We maneuver around these spaces and these special programs, acknowledging that it is broadcasted to a predominantly cishet audience. We do so, knowing that not many of us have the vocabulary, the understanding of nuances, the community, for queer Asian Americans. And perhaps that is why we constantly demand for space. Why we intentionally, thoughtfully, and bravely cater our events with a forgotten group in mind. It is with this awareness that we create UAAO’s Zine Ed.7, as a celebration of our existence in our community.

Sources

Destination Ann Arbor. “LGBTQ+ Ann Arbor: Historic Firsts & A Look Ahead.” Ann Arbor, 20 June 2022, https://www. annarbor.org/blog/post/lgbtq-ann-arbor/. Studies, University of Michigan, 2 Sept. 2022, https://lsa.umich.edu/ap “Queer in Color.” Mic.michigandaily.com, Michigan Daily, 2022, https://mic.michigandaily.com/ queer-in-color/.