On behalf of the board and staff members, ACAS would like to thank all our members, allies, volunteers, donors, marchers and float decorators for making this year’s WorldPride an extremely memorable one. ACAS had a full week of WorldPride related events including hosting a Welcome Reception for Asian Delegates attending WorldPride 2014, presenting on three panels at the WorldPride Human Rights Conference, and participating at the Trans March, Dyke March, QAY Cabaret Pride Stage, as well as marching with our very own ACAS Pride Float this year!
ACAS WorldPride Welcome Reception (Photo by Sophia Zhao)
ACAS Welcome Reception for Asian Delegates attending WorldPride 2014
ACAS was very excited and extremely honoured to have the opportunity to host a welcome reception for the many international Asian delegates attending this year’s WorldPride and the WorldPride Human Rights Conference on June 25, 2014. Honoured guests included past International Pride Grand Marshals Angie Umbac of the Philippines, Thai trans activist Kath Khangpiboon, Taiwanese delegates Paul Hsu and Howard Chiu of the Taiwan Lourdes Association and Chih-Liu Peng and Shi-Cheng Du of the Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBTQ) Hotline Association, Korean delegates Minhee Ryu, Horim Yi of the Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights of Korea, and Candy Yun of the Korean Sexual-Minority Culture and Rights Center, Dandan Zhang of Tong Yu La La (Same Language) of Hong Kong, Roger Tam of the Gay Men’s Health Clinic of Winnipeg, and Frank Folino of the WorldPride 2014 team. Aside from fun games, good food and opportunities to mingle, the evening saw the premier of the new ACAS Men’s Program educational video. We would like to thank our MC Steven Shi and our host the Holiday Inn Yorkville-Bloor for making this event possible, and editor Jack Jia of the Chinese News Group for attending and covering the event.
ACAS promotes LGBTQ and HIV rights at the WorldPride Human Rights Conference
As a community leader in providing culturally and linguistically appropriate programming and services to the local East and Southeast Asian LGBTQ and HIV communities, ACAS took part in three panels at this year’s WorldPride Human Rights Conference. ACAS Executive Director Noulmook Sutdhibhasilp presented alongside Executive Directors Shannon Ryan of BlackCAP, Vijaya Chikermane of ASAAP, and Fanta Ongoiba of APAA on the “Intersectional Approaches to HIV” panel moderated by Dr. Alan Li, highlighting the multi-layered issues faced by many of the racialized LGBTQ and HIV+ community members and service users. The second panel was the “Asian Trans Women in Toronto” panel facilitated by Men’s Sexual Health Coordinator Richard Utama, Volunteer Coordinator Trisha Steinberg, and Women’s Outreach Worker Bebe Szerelmes highlighting the specific issues facing many of our Asian trans women service users. Our last panel, the “Asian LGBTQ Diaspora in Canada” panel was created by ACAS in collaboration with our community partner Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter and were joined by panellists ACAS Board Chair Andre Goh, ACAS 20th Anniversary Community Builder Award Recipient Dr. Alan Li, youth activist and ACAS Breakthrough Award Recipient Julia Lo, Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam and Community Engagement Worker Christian Hui facilitated by Executive Director Noulmook Sutdhibhasilp. The panel highlighted the history and present state of the local Asian LGBTQ and HIV movements, and the need to create a stronger community response through intersectoral collaboration with the wider community to address LGBTQ and HIV issues facing our community.
ACAS WorldPride Red and White Float (Photo by Tony Chen)
ACAS Celebrates WorldPride 2014 in style
This year has been an exciting year for ACAS. After celebrating our 20th anniversary in May at the CelebrAsian 20th Anniversary Fundraising Gala in May, we once again took part in Pride in full force with our members, volunteers, allies, staff, and community supporters. Aside from taking part in all three marches at this year’s WorldPride—the Trans March on June 27, Dyke March on June 28, and the Pride Parade with our special ACAS Red and White Float on June 29—our youths had also put up an amazing Fortune Queer Cookies show at the WorldPride QAY Cabaret Stage. With about 100 contingents marching and showing our pride and our specially choreographed dancers on our float, we certainly created many wonderful memories for all those involved.
Thanks to Meza, our Social Media Coordinator, for capturing our wonderful pride memories on film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g37DhJ6Zt6g
QAY WorldPride Cabaret – Fortune Queer Cookies (Photo by Tony Chen)
We wish everyone a very happy summer!
