You have last heard from us with our ACAS CelebrAsian Banquet Update in early May.
May and June have truly an extremely busy time at ACAS with many amazing events taking place: Celebrating Asian Heritage Month; #PinkDotTO2016; the 2nd Annual OPA+ Gathering 2016; Apologies that the update came a bit later than usual, but we hope you will enjoy the updates nonetheless!
Celebrating Asian Heritage Month with the Toronto Police Services Chinese Consultative Committee
ACAS would like to thank the Toronto Police Divison 42 Chinese Consultative Committee for hosting an amazing and festive Asian Heritage Month Celebration at Canadian Immigrant and Cultural Service (CISC) on May 7. The event included many amazing cultural performances including a lion dance, acrobatic performances and many cultural dances and songs performed by many Chinese community performance groups. The Toronto Police
ACAS celebrates IDAHOT with Mayor John Tory!
ACAS was invited to the breakfast with Mayor John Tory on May 17, 2016 to honour the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDHOT). Our board members joined the table and had a chat with city councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, the mayor, and other notable figures in the community like Rev. Brent Hawkes, senior pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto who performed the first same-sex wedding ceremony in Canada. Along with the new bill that gives transgender Canadians equal rights, today is a great step forward!
PinkDotTO2016!
About 100 members of the Asian LGBTQ community along with supporters and allies wore pink and showed their pride that there is love across generations for queer Asians marching through Chinatown on Saturday, May 21, at a highly successful #PinkDotTO2016: Chinatown Pride March! We would like to thank Kristyn Wong-Tam for City Councillor, Ward 27 (Toronto Centre – Rosedale) for speaking at the event, along with Alvis Choi and Aries Cheung for emceeing the event. #PinkDotTO is the Toronto Chinatown Pride March which takes place in May during Asian Heritage Month, and is sponsored by ACAS (Asian Community AIDS Services) and Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter, with support from Scadding Court Community Centreand Market 707 – Toronto’s First Shipping Container Market.
Full-House at ACAS Sponsored Inside Out LGBT Film Festival Screenings and Community Sponsorship at the Toronto Korean Film Festival (TKFF)
ACAS (Asian Community AIDS Services) and Ontario Positive Asians (OPA+) were the official community sponsors for the full house screening of Richard Fung‘s Re:Orientations, a documentary about the history of the Asian LGBTQ activist movement at the Inside Out LGBT Film Festival on May 28, 2016. Our Sex, Love, Asian, Men! (S.L.A.M.!) and Queer Asian Youth (QAY) Programs were community sponsors for another full house screening of Front Cover – Feature Film by Hong Kong Directory Ray Yeung on June 3, 2016 at the Inside Out LGBT Film Festival. Lastly, ACAS/Ontario Positive Asians were invited to be part of a community panel around sex and substance use after the screening of “Chemsex” at the festival on June 4, 2016. As well, ACAS is proud to be one of the Community Partners for Toronto Korean Film Festival 토론토 한국영화제 to sponsor the screening of the feature presentation “Troublers (불온한 당신)” on Sunday June 19th!
Community Forums
OPA+ 2016 Gathering!
The second annual Ontario Positive Asians (OPA+) Gathering 2016 was attended by over 25 Asians living with HIV in Ontario on May 27. The attendees had an amazing evening of great food and comraderie within a culturally-safe space to build a stronger network for and by Asians living with HIV. The OPA+ Network was formed in 2014 for East, Southeast, South and West Asians living with HIV in Ontario through the support of ACAS (Asian Community AIDS Services) and Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP). OPA+!
Pillow Talk
The ACAS Women’s Education and Outreach Program‘s annual Pillow Talk took place on June 3, 2016! Asian women and transwomen came and connected together with other Asian women to learn more about Online Dating, Sex & Pleasure, Self Defense Workshop, Thai Massage, and more!
Telling Our Stories: Queer Asian Youth Writing Project
Queer Asian Youth (QAY)‘s Community Book Launch for Telling Our Stories: Queer Asian Youth Writing Project took place at Glad Day Book Store on June 13, 2016. Honoured guests included awad-winning author Wayson Choy and Councillor Kristyn Wong-tam! The successful project allowed queer Asian youths to be trained in story-telling and contribute to this special book that documents the experiences of queer Asian youth.
Miss ACAS
The Two #MissACAS Lara Bonita and Isabel Mendoza! Miss ACAS raises money to support our Queer Asian Youth Program, which helps build new leaders from queer Asian youths in the Greater Toronto Area.Thank you to all sponsors for making #MissACAS2016 possible: Dr.Jorge M. Jose Dental Office, Dr. Robert Diaz of OCAD University,#StyledbyMissTrish, Moss Park Pharma Care, Dr. Alan Li, and Paul Cadiente, with catering from Tinuno!
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