APIENC (API Equality – Northern California)
API Equality – Northern California (APIENC) builds transgender, non-binary, and queer API power
We are non-Black people of Asian and Pasifika (A&PI) descent, and we are trans, nonbinary, and many Indigenous cultural gender identities¹. We span many movements, many generations, and many organizations. We affirm the value of Black lives, unconditionally. We are in defense of Black life. We fight for and alongside Black people, Black uprisings, and
We, as trans and queer Asians and Pacific Islanders, believe that everybody has a role in dismantling anti-Blackness.
I don’t remember the year; I was 24, maybe 25, when I went to visit a friend in St. Vincent’s Hospital on 7th Ave in New York City. I never found him. The hospital was overrun with AIDS patients and didn’t have enough beds, so those who didn’t have a room laid on gurneys in
Environmental and climate justice work is an emerging part of APIENC’s organizing and politics. APIENC’s TTAC (Think and Take Action Cohort) brings together and inspires queer and transgender Asian and Pacific Islander (QTAPI) people in the SF Bay Area to engage and take action to stop climate and environmental injustices, particularly as they affect Black
APIENC won Community Grand Marshal of SF Pride 2019 by public vote. This is an honor and a responsibility. With increased police presence, heavy corporate involvement, and impact on the local underhoused communities, SF Pride is far from its radical roots. When we won, we didn’t know what to do. But we wanted to be
POP! Camp is BACK! This summer, APIENC and NQAPIA are hosting our second People Over Pride (POP!) Camp for LGBTQ Asian and Pacific Islander Youth. POP! Camp is an intensive 4-day LGBTQ API training camp for youth ages 14-20 to grow into organizers and activist. We’ll be talking about what it means to create change,
Avery Nguyen (they/them) is a member of APIENC’s Core Committee, and our Trans Justice Committee. After our retreats with the Wildfire Project, Avery wrote this reflection to share with the APIENC community. This has been a messy year. Besides the harms and injustices that have been affecting me indirectly, personally this year has been one