Monthly Archives: June 2023

"Your donation makes a difference" Donate to ACAS online Since 2017, funding for our Volunteer Program has ceased, but ACAS continues to run the program. Volunteers play an integral role in our organization. At the same time, their volunteer placement fulfills their purpose and needs. It may be acquiring hours for school or work or gaining a new life or employability skills. In addition, ACAS provides a nurturing, fun, and safe space to all our volunteers and service users. Supporting the general fundraiser will help ACAS continue to run the program even without significant funding; it will help us maintain the core training workshops for new volunteers, provide other empowering and skill-building workshops, and host a volunteer appreciation night twice a year. QTAY/Youth + Please Help Revive Women’s Programming It was in 2015 when our Youth Program faced a significant funding cut, followed by the Women's Program. Since then, ACAS has been working diligently to help secure funding for our Youth/QTAY Program and Women's Program's activities. Supporting this fundraiser will help ACAS maintain vital program activities. And to continue hosting PillowTalk as an annual Women's Program event. Pinkdot TOPink Dot is a movement started in 2009 in support of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ) community in Singapore. Attendees of the Pink Dot events gather to form a giant pink dot in a show of support for inclusiveness, diversity and the freedom to love. Pink Dot has inspired many worldwide to show their support and love for LGBTQ communities. International Pink Dot events have been held in Anchorage, Hong Kong, London, Montreal, New York, Oklahoma, Penang, and Kaoshiung, Utah. The first PinkDotTO , born in the [...]

"Your donation makes a difference" Donate to ACAS online Since 2017, funding for our Volunteer Program has ceased, but ACAS continues to run the program. Volunteers play an integral role in our organization. At the same time, their volunteer placement fulfills their purpose and needs. It may be acquiring hours for school or work or gaining a new life or employability skills. In addition, ACAS provides a nurturing, fun, and safe space to all our volunteers and service users. Supporting the general fundraiser will help ACAS continue to run the program even without significant funding; it will help us maintain the core training workshops for new volunteers, provide other empowering and skill-building workshops, and host a volunteer appreciation night twice a year. QTAY/Youth + Please Help Revive Women’s Programming It was in 2015 when our Youth Program faced a significant funding cut, followed by the Women's Program. Since then, ACAS has been working diligently to help secure funding for our Youth/QTAY Program and Women's Program's activities. Supporting this fundraiser will help ACAS maintain vital program activities. And to continue hosting PillowTalk as an annual Women's Program event. Pinkdot TO Pink Dot is a movement started in 2009 in support of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ) community in Singapore. Attendees of the Pink Dot events gather to form a giant pink dot in a show of support for inclusiveness, diversity and the freedom to love. Pink Dot has inspired many worldwide to show their support and love for LGBTQ communities. International Pink Dot events have been held in Anchorage, Hong Kong, London, Montreal, New York, Oklahoma, Penang, and Kaoshiung, Utah. The first PinkDotTO , born [...]

My name is Justin Anantawan (Instagram: @justin_anantawan) and I am a gay Asian photographer living with HIV.  I recently completed a photo project called “Stories of Life with HIV: A Queer Asian Perspective” in collaboration with Where Love is Illegal, Asian Community AIDS Services and The Community One Foundation.  The project took a year to complete and featured stories of 8 members of the ACAS community in Toronto. I implemented this project because I felt that it was important to shed light on the diverse experiences of my peers and colleagues – participants included folks of Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian, Korean and Chinese descent.  In Toronto, PHAs are a largely marginalized, stigmatized and underrepresented community.  However, Queer Asian PHAs, especially newcomers, face the additional barriers such as lack of access to resources in their native language and social isolation.  The aim of this project was to empower the participants to share their stories, raise awareness for challenges facing Queer HIV Positive Asians and show the community that our stories matter. This project was valuable to me because it made me feel closer to my peers.  As a Canadian-born person of Chinese and Thai descent, I have often felt like an imposter – I do not know the Thai or Chinese languages and I have still yet to visit my extended family in Thailand.  Also, in my work as a photographer, I previously had done many stories on PHAs in Kenya and Gambia – however I had not photographed members of my own community.  By interacting with the participants and listening to their stories I was able to gain a new perspective on what it means to be a Queer Asian PHA and draw parallels between their stories and mine.  I also made a new group of friends who can relate to my experiences, love and support me. I see this [...]

March with ACAS in the Pride Parade on Sunday, June 25 Join the largest contingent for East & Southeast Asian queer & trans folks in the Pride Parade! Partners and allies are welcome. Bring your own water, bells, whistles, and noisemakers, but most of all, bring YOUR PROUD SELF! Group Number: B13 Meet up point: Northeast corner of Isabella & Jarvis at the Rogers Sign Pillar, https://goo.gl/maps/dnF1hXP4m8DtoSQP9 Meet up time: 1:30pm-2:00pm (before moving to the parade starting line) Group in front of us: Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention Group behind us: The Home Depot Canada *We are not having a float this year and only walking. It will be crowded and it could get difficult to find us. We will have an ACAS sign on a pole. If you are late to meet us at our meet up point, then you can find us near the starting point along Bloor St and Church St and look for either B13 or the other groups we are situated in between. You will NOT be able to join when the parade begins as the barricades will be back this year to block off people from entering along the route. We are at a later time this year, so expect a longer wait at the starting point. When we walk along the parade, please continue to move and not leave large gaps as it holds up the whole parade. We cannot stop to take photos for too long as it creates large gaps. We encourage you to bring your own water in a reusable bottle, however there will be water available along the route. We may bring limited water bottles to reduce waste.               If you cannot walk the whole route, get tired, or overheated, there are exit points along the route [...]

- June 9: Outreach at UofT Pride Pub (in-person) - June 10: Pillow Talk (virtual) - June 10: Support Program's Pink PRIDE (In person) - June 14: Friends of Ruby BIPOC Drop-In (in-person) - June 14: RUBY Pride Play field trip (in-person) - June 16: "Swipe Right" Discussion (virtual) - June 21: Karaoke Gaysian Pride Party (in-person) - June 22: QTAY Pride Picnic (in-person) - June 25: Pride Parade (in-person)  More information is available at acas.org/calendar/month/