Date Range: 2000 – 2009Survey Conducted: Wed, 2009-02-11
Creator: Gay Asian and Pacific Islander Men of New York (GAPIMNY)
History: Founded in 1990, GAPIMNY (formerly known as Gay Asian and Pacific Islander Men of New York) is a membership-based organization dedicated to empowering queer and trans Asian/Pacific Americans to create positive change through a range of social, educational, peer-support, cultural, and political activities. GAPIMNY works in coalition with other community organizations to help educate the API and LGBT communities on issues of race, sexuality, gender, and health.
GAPIMNY is led by an annually elected 13-member Steering Committee, which in turn leads several subcommittees. These subcommittees are divided into Active Immediate Subcommittees and Longer Goal Committees. To further its mission of providing a safe and supportive social, political, and educational space, the organization sponsors a range of social events and programs. These include monthly general membership and steering committee meetings, workshops, monthly brunches, seasonal parties, fundraisers, and other social and cultural events. Its newsletter magazine PersuAsian aims to increase the visibility of the LGBT API community, disseminating information about GAPIMNY events and relevant news affecting the community.
Over the course of its history, GAPIMNY has actively engaged in LGBT and API rights advocacy and coalition work. In 2004, when Details magazine published “Gay or Asian?” a satirical feature stereotypically caricaturing LBGT and A/PA peoples, GAPIMNY took early leadership of organized protests, demanding apology, retraction, diverse and positive representations of LGBT A/PAs in Details, and diversity sensitivity training for its staff. The organization argued that the article’s title, “Gay or Asian?” itself suggested that an individual could be either or but not both, perpetuating the invisibility of LGBT A/PAs who lived at the interstices of race, sexuality, class, and nationality. In addition to encouraging the thousands of letters, calls and emails of protest sent to Details’ editorial office sparked by GLAAD/POC Media Program’s initial community alert, the organization co-sponsored with Asian Media Watchdog a noon-time protest outside the magazine’s New York editorial office at 7 West 34th Street (5th Ave) on April 16.
In 2005, its 15th Anniversary year, GAPIMNY sent a large contingent to the Creating Change Conference sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for LGBTQ activists and community organizers, significant in that hundreds of LGBTQ APIs came together to attempt the framing of a unified political, social, and cultural agenda. At the time of this survey, GAPIMNY’s current Chair is Jason F. Tseng.
Sources: GAPIMNY. The GAPIMNY Story. Accessed February 3, 2015. http://www.gapimny.org/gapimny-history/.
Summary: The collection consists of film footage on DVD, printed materials, and news clippings. Film footage documents GAPIMNY milestones and events such as the organization’s 15th Anniversary celebration in 2005. Printed materials include copies of PersuAsian, GAPIMNY’s magazine newsletter, dating from 2000 to 2005, shorter PersuAsian briefs dating from 2007 to 2009, issues of GAPIMNY News, publicity materials for GAPIMNY events, and programs from events in which GAPIMNY participated. News clippings pertain to press commentary—both positive and negative—about GAPIMNY specifically and the LGBTQ community in general. Clippings are drawn from Asian Week, Details, New York Blade News, Chinese Christian Herald, and Sing Tao Daily.
Total Size: 0.25 linear feet
APA-related Size: 0.25 linear feet
Languages of materials: English and Chinese
Arrangement: other
Location: GAPMINY offices
Bibliographic Control: other
Conditions Governing Access: Contact organization for detailed information on conditions governing access.