{"id":63011,"date":"2024-02-29T07:54:24","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T15:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=63011"},"modified":"2024-02-29T07:54:24","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T15:54:24","slug":"queer-and-trans-young-asian-americans-need-caregiving-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=63011","title":{"rendered":"Queer and Trans Young Asian Americans Need Caregiving Too"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_author tdi_54 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_54\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-author-name-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-author-by\">By<\/span><a class=\"tdb-author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/author\/sunita\/\">Sunita Sohrabji<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_date tdi_55 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_55\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><i class=\"tdb-date-icon tdc-font-fa tdc-font-fa-calendar\"><\/i><time class=\"entry-date updated td-module-date\" datetime=\"2024-02-27T20:57:07-08:00\">Feb 27, 2024<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_subtitle tdi_56 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_56\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;ve seen with the legislative and political attacks on the queer community. We have to find ways to take care of ourselves and to take care of each other.\u201d \u2014 Dianara Rivera, Asian American Resource Workshop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_featured_image tdi_57 tdb-content-horiz-left td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_57\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"entry-thumb\" title=\"AARW\" src=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/dsc_3212_51394627709_o.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/dsc_3212_51394627709_o.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/dsc_3212_51394627709_o-300x211.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/dsc_3212_51394627709_o-768x541.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/dsc_3212_51394627709_o-150x106.jpg 150w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/dsc_3212_51394627709_o-696x490.jpg 696w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/dsc_3212_51394627709_o-100x70.jpg 100w\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"704\" \/><figcaption class=\"tdb-caption-text\">(photo courtesy of the Asian American Resource Workshop)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_58 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_58\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>AAPI young adults who are queer or trans often find themselves alone: estranged from traditional families and friends who are not supportive or don\u2019t understand their identity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t often think of caregiving as something that we need for ourselves. We think caregiving is individual, in a home, or there\u2019s someone that\u2019s giving care to their elder parent,\u201d said Dianara Rivera, Director of Narrative Strategy at the Asian American Resource Workshop. \u201cBut caregiving is political. We\u2019ve seen the legislative and political attacks on the queer community. We have to find ways to take care of ourselves and to take care of each other,\u201d Rivera told EMS.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we bring caregiving into the public space and make it communal, we really learn a lot. There\u2019s few and far between spaces for our community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Narrative Change<\/h2>\n<p>Rivera grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. \u201cI felt pretty isolated. We were not the only Filipino family, but we were definitely one of the few. I had my Filipino friends, but honestly, back then I didn\u2019t even know I was queer. I did not figure it out till I was 20.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I did not see a way I was supposed to be, especially as a queer person, even though I didn\u2019t know it yet. So I really had to figure it out on my own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"td-video-replacer\" data-id=\"undefined\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"widget2\" title=\"Queer and Trans AAPI Youth Need Caregiving Too\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RP2eHirpDWA?feature=oembed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"392\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-11=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Based in Boston, Massachusetts, AARW is one of five organizations involved with Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC\u2019s Narrative Change and Caregiving Project, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Through the initiative, AARW aimed to collect stories and art about what interdependence looks like in queer and trans communities. The work is being shared with the public and policymakers.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Not Your Model Minority<\/h2>\n<p>AARW\u2019s project also aims to combat the model minority myth. While some of the organization\u2019s previous initiatives have focused on AAPI elderly people, this project engaged solely young queer and trans adults.<\/p>\n<p>The organization created a series of workshops for the local QTAPI community to write, paint, and draw.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of expectations for us to fit the model minority and stay submissive to the American gaze, but I say be brash, loud, and unapologetic. Disrupt the norm of white cisnormative America,\u201d wrote Jenny Ly, who also created a mosaic of found objects at the first workshop last August.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Complexity of Identity<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/jenny.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26707\" src=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/jenny.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/jenny.jpg 750w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/jenny-239x300.jpg 239w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/jenny-150x188.jpg 150w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/jenny-300x376.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/jenny-696x872.jpg 696w\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"940\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">By Jenny Ly, courtesy of AARW.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cAt AARW, I\u2019ve met a lot of lovely queer folks at events that make me realize that we need more intersecting identity spaces to care and love for each other. Being QTAPI is complex, but to embrace my vulnerability is being able to accept myself and the new things I discover about being QTAPI,\u201d wrote Ly. A poetry writing workshop was also held that month.<\/p>\n<p>Last September, AARW facilitated an \u201cAsk for Help, Ask for Love,\u201d workshop, aiming to challenge the myth within the AAPI community that asking for help is shameful and burdensome to the person who is asked. Participants explored the barriers which made them fearful of asking for help, including: fear of rejection, past rejections, and the myth that one must be strong amid a community that is struggling.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Grandmother\u2019s Sari<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sari.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26708\" src=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sari-576x1024.jpeg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sari-576x1024.jpeg 576w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sari-169x300.jpeg 169w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sari-150x267.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sari-300x534.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sari-696x1238.jpeg 696w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sari.jpeg 750w\" alt=\"\" width=\"576\" height=\"1024\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photographer unnamed. Courtesy of AARW.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The final workshop in December featured photography. One person brought a photo of a fragment of a sari. \u201cMy grandmother passed away when she was very young. When my mother came to America, the only thing she had of her mother\u2019s was this sari. Today, it\u2019s the only thing left of my grandmother,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy mother gave me a piece of the sari, which I wear as a scarf on special occasions, and she kept the other half. Photographing this scarf feels like immortalizing my grandmother\u2019s memory,\u201d wrote the photographer.<\/p>\n<p>The stories, art, and photos can be viewed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aarw.org\/stories-of-collective-care\"><u>here<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was really happy to be able to give a lot of folks an opportunity to be able to share their knowledge and practices of caregiving with the larger community,\u201d said Rivera. \u201cThe feedback I got was really that it was great to have this space specifically for the QTAPI community. \u00a0Being able to just bring the sense of aliveness was really heartwarming.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BySunita Sohrabji Feb 27, 2024 \u201cWe&#8217;ve&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63012,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63011\/revisions\/63012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}