Monthly Archives: March 2012

TRUONG, Patrick Kristoff After a courageous battle with bile duct cancer, our dear Patrick passed away on Saturday, February 18, 2012 at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre. A Funeral Service was held on Thursday, February 23, 2012. This is a tribute to Patrick. Patrick Truong was one of the very first Asian PHAs (persons living with HIV/AIDS) who came out to speak about the issue of HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination, and homophobia in the Toronto Asian community. He was a pioneer, a champion, a mentor, a good party goer, a support staff, and a professional to the many people who knew him. Patrick migrated to Canada as a refugee with his family during the 1970s and settled in Toronto. He came out as a proud gay man during the height of the AIDS crisis in the early 1980s. Patrick’s early activism began with Gay Asians Toronto (GAT), one of the founding coalition groups that merged to become what is known today as Asian Community AIDS Services (ACAS). He was a gay men’s outreach worker for GAT’s Gay Asian AIDS Project (GAAP) in 1989 when the AIDS epidemic was at its peak. In 1993, he was elected President of Gay Asian Toronto and from 1998 to 2000 he was a board member of ACAS. In 2001, Patrick stepped down from the ACAS Board to take a position as Support Program Coordinator. Patrick utilized his resilient skills as a PHA, multi-linguist (he spoke Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, and English), case manager, program manager, and fundraiser in many different capacities, both professionally and as volunteer. Patrick had served on numerous external committees, provided guidance and mentorship to  newly formed groups  such as CAAT /ETSN, and applied  his many talents to fundraise and support groups promoting gay Asian rights in the GTA such as Club Asian [...]