In a special episode for AAPI Heritage Month (May), hosts Marpheen Chann and Liz Greason talk with Ophelia Hu Kinney, a queer United Methodist lay leader serving as worship coordinator at HopeGateWay in Portland, Maine, and the Communications Specialist at the international organization, Reconciling Ministries Network. She’s a tireless advocate of LGBTQ+ folks and those in the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, who infuses this lens of equity and mindset of curiosity in pretty much everything she does. 

DEFINITIONS:

Queer: “Queer is often used as an umbrella term referring to anyone who is not straight and not cisgender. Cisgender people are people whose gender identity and expression matches the sex they were assigned at birth. Historically the term queer was used as a slur against LGBTQ+ people, but in recent years it has been reclaimed by LGBTQ+ communities. However, some LGBTQ+ people still find the term offensive. Queer is also often used as a broad rejection of labels. In this context, this could be a rejection of any type of label, but most often refers to a rejection of labels for gender and sexual orientation.” https://outrightinternational.org/content/acronyms-explained

Asian American, AAPI: “When the phrase Asian American was created — in 1968, according to activists and academics — it was a radical label of self-determination that indicated a political agenda of equality, anti-racism and anti-imperialism. Asian American was an identity that was chosen, not one that was given.”

“Activists and academics trace the origins of the term back to 1968 and University of California, Berkeley students Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee, who, inspired by the Black Power Movement and the protests against the Vietnam War, founded the Asian American Political Alliance as way to unite Japanese, Chinese and Filipino American students on campus.”

“The term Asian American [...] signaled a shared and interconnected history of immigration, labor exploitation and racism, as well as a common political agenda. It was also a pushback against the pejorative word "Oriental."”  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/after-50-years-asian-american-advocates-say-term-more-essential-n875601

But, there are also limitations…

• What is Asia? (the Middle East? Russia? South and Southeast Asia?)
  
• Is it conflating or accounting for various types of difference (cultural, linguistic)?
  
• Uniquely American construction of race, which conflates/sees Asians as a monolith; doesn’t actually make sense to people outside the US

RESOURCES:

“Racism doesn’t distinguish.” Yến Lê Espiritu, author of Asian American Panethnicity: Bridging Institutions and Identities.
“The Making of Asian America” by  Erika Lee

“Paying rent to the land that you live on” by finding an indigenous led organization that serves the area in which you live and making a monthly donation them

https://www.mainewabanakireach.org/

http://www.wabanakihw.org/about-us/

http://gedakina.org/

The five Wabanaki Tribes of Maine:

Aroostook Band of Micmacs
http://micmac-nsn.gov/

Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians
https://maliseets.net/

Passamaquoddy Tribe of Indian Township – Motahkomikuk https://www.passamaquoddy.com/

Passamaquoddy Tribe of Pleasant Point – Sipayik http://www.wabanaki.com/

Penobscot Indian Nation https://www.penobscotnation.org/