Goodbye

Hi all,

This blog is no longer running. Mostly because I have little time.

Please refer to links on the website for other great bloggers.

Comments from now on will not be moderated.

Thank you for all of your support.

Always,

Cynical

Erase Racism

Please head over to The Angry Black Woman for the May 2007 Erase Racism Carnival.

National APIA LGBT Survey

The largest survey of APIA LGBTs just came out. The executive summary of the survey titled "Living in the margins: A national survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Asian and Pacific Islander Americans" is provided in Chinese, Hindi, Korean and Vietnamese. Please check it out!

Here are things pulled out of a press release on the report via an email I got from QAPA:

Living in the Margins is based on analysis of survey data from 863 respondents who live in a total of 38 states and the District of Columbia in a pattern that closely reflects the distribution of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. This online survey was conducted from June through September 2006 in English, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. It included a variety of questions focusing on basic demographic information, experiences of discrimination and/or harassment, policy priorities and political behavior. Respondents were recruited through invitations on listservs and Web sites created by API LGBT community organizations in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Honolulu. Special appeals were also made to increase participation from traditionally underrepresented groups, including South Asians, Pacific Islanders, Koreans, women, transgender people and elders.

"As the Asian and Pacific Islander community grows in size and clout, we cannot leave behind Asians and Pacific Islanders who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. We are a part of both the API and LGBT communities and we raise our voices for inclusion in national debates around comprehensive and compassionate immigration reform, punitive bans on marriage and hate violence that tears our community apart. We are silent at our own peril," said Doreena Wong, co-chair of API Equality--Los Angeles.

"Asian and Pacific Islander LGBT community members report pervasive harassment in the form of homophobia in the API community and racism in the LGBT community. They are concerned with comprehensive and compassionate immigration reform, how they are portrayed in the media, and protecting their families and themselves from violence and harassment," said Alain Dang, a Task Force policy analyst and the study's lead author. "These findings add to the growing body of evidence that support the need for not only legislative intervention, but community introspection."

Key findings of the report include:

* Nearly every respondent (98 percent) had experienced at least one form of discrimination and/or harassment in their lives: 75 percent reported that they had experienced discrimination and/or harassment based on their sexual orientation and 85 percent reported experiencing discrimination and/or harassment based on their race or ethnicity.
* The most important issues facing API LGBT Americans are hate violence/harassment, media representation, marriage equality and immigration.
* Nearly all respondents (89 percent) agreed that homophobia and/or transphobia are problems within the broader API community. In addition, 78 percent agreed that API LGBT people experience racism within the predominantly white LGBT community.
* API LGBT Americans are very politically active, with 67 percent reporting that they planned to vote in the 2006 midterm election. Approximately 20 percent reported that they were ineligible to vote. Strong majorities of respondents also reported that they participate in other political activities, including signing petitions, participating in marches or rallies and contacting their elected officials.
* Only 50 percent of respondents said that English was their native language. Mandarin (11 percent), Cantonese (8 percent), Tagalog (6 percent) and Vietnamese (5 percent) were the most frequently cited native languages. Nearly all LGBT informational and advocacy materials are produced in English. Few resources are printed in any Asian language.

Demographics of respondents:

* More than a dozen ethnicities were represented in the sample, including Chinese (40 percent), Filipino (19 percent), Japanese (11 percent) and Asian Indian (10 percent). Smaller numbers of Vietnamese, Korean, Hawaiian, Malaysian, Thai and Pakistani respondents also participated. These ethnic groups are Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, a term that encompasses a vast collection of ethnic groups with unique histories, cultures and migrations within both their Asian or Pacific Island ancestral country of origin and the United States.
* Fifty-three percent of the participants identified as men, 41 percent as women and 10 percent as transgender. This adds up to more than 100 percent because respondents could select more than one option.
* Forty-seven percent of respondents self-identified as gay, 19 percent as lesbian and 9 percent as bisexual. Twenty percent identified as "queer," with women more than twice as likely as men to choose that label. Five percent chose various other labels.
* One-third of respondents reported being in a committed relationship and 10 percent reported having a domestic partner.

Racism Shown to be Bad for Health

(Found on Racewire)

A new report just released in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health finds a link between the perception of unfairness in medical treatment and fatal coronary heart disease.

People who experienced injustice and felt unfairly treated were 55 percent more likely to suffer from a coronary event than people who felt life was fair, according to the report.

The study assessed medical data from more than 6,000 British civil servants who were asked how strongly they agreed with the statement, “I often have the feeling that I am being treated unfairly.” After controlling for other baseline variables, the report concludes that, “Unfairness is an independent predictor of increased coronary events and impaired health functioning.”

The report’s abstract makes no mention of racism. But, given the intense and chronic feelings associated with experiencing racial injustice, I’d be interested in seeing that dynamic specifically examined in future medical studies--especially in the U.S.

This doesn't seem too surprising to me. If just looking at racism in the workplace, it would make sense that the stress and emotional tolls would be a factor of declining mental health (if not physical).

A Poem by Suheir Hammad

Mount Everest and the 2008 Olympics

Thanks to Tibet Will Be Free

Update

My bad on not writing for the past few days. I am here to let y'all know that I still won't be able to write for awhile.

It's graduation time! Hooray! Well, not quite yet, but close. It's an emotional time as well because this is a time for me to bond with my parents, who have been fairly absent in my academic life and activist life. So... there will be tears. Already have been.

Also, I've been dealing with quite a few self-righteous white male assholes at school. Professors and students alike. Trying to figure out my next steps and simultaneously creating some angry pieces of poetry with it to be productive. So... yes, big thanks to you self-righteous white male assholes.

I am also organizing for the May 1st National Day of Immigration Solidarity. I would encourage you to show your solidarity as well by going to your local rally.

Anyway... Please come back to visit once in a while. Posts will be very spare between now and the beginning of June.