Gay TV

This was posted on YouTube as being "Singapore's first gay TV scenes."

Trip to the Addams Family

The Addams Family is making its intial debut run in Chicago prior to going to Broadway in New York. An offshoot group of Asians and Friends Chicago made a holiday visit to the kooky clan.

FINC Ball

The Chicago Filipinos who organize a float every year for Pride Parade (they call themselves "FINC" which stands for "Filipinos in Chicago") had a fundraiser this weekend in a highrise on Lake Shore Drive. Though it was cloudy, the fun and "awards" were plentiful.

A Filipino Christmas Party

A lot of merriment and cheer at Chip and Gordon's caroling party. Chip has the connection to the Filipino men in Chicago.

Naked Sushi!

The men of Asians and Friends Chicago held a "Naked Sushi" fundraiser a couple of weeks ago and found it to be a unique and amazing event. Most had never eaten sushi off of a person before, so it opened a lot of eyes to the sensuality of food. Plus, two of the four models were adult film stars from Toby Ross films. In addition, there was a sushi chef, a sake shot boy and a chair masseur. Good times!

Mr. Hyphen

San Francisco has a faux pageant called Mr. Hyphen, aimed at dashing stereotypes of Asian men as being sexless and nerdy. Pahole Sookkasikon, an American-born man of Thai decent, won.

Film Night

The Banyan Tree Project @ Asian Human Services

Presents……….

SAVING FACE

DECEMBER 15, 2009 6p-9p

4753 NORTH BROADWAY

FIRST FLOOR CONFERENCE ROOM

UPTOWN, CHICAGO, IL

60640

Film. Discussion. Friends

On the Mark

Mark M. is a Chicago resident who's started to do a video blog. You may want to follow his antics ...

CNN's Hero of the Year

Here's a link to the CNN Hero of the Year who is Filipino.

Dim Sum

Every first Sunday of the month, Asians and Friends Chicago holds a Dim Sum gathering at the Furama restaurant in Chicago. It's a nice way to consistently meet. This was the day after Halloween.

A Coopy Interview

Anderson Cooper has an appeal to a broad range of demographics, including gay Asians. Here's Asians and Friends Chicago's Board Pres. Angel Abcede "interviewing" the CNN icon at the CNN store in Atlanta during ifCON 2009.

Jon and Kate Plus Eight

Members of Asians and Friends Chicago banded together to do a Jon and Kate Plus Eight entry in this weekend's Halsted Street Halloween Parade. They won Best Group in the parade contest competition.

Rising from the Crypt

Asians and Friends Chicago Board Pres. Angel Abcede takes a moment to emerge while on a tour of the architecturally historic Graceland Cemetary in Chicago.

Halloween Season Begins

Asians and Friends members joined Omar at his Halloween party this past Satuday in Elgin, Illinois. Several members won prizes that included a DVD player and an iPOD. But this is just the beginning of the Halloween season! More to come...

Political Activism

Chicago's i2i group, which stands for "Invisible to Invincible," is a politically active collective of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Asian-Pacific Americans. They're planning a big year of new activities. Here they are talking about their plans.

Openly Gay Candidate for Judge

An openly gay candidate for Cook County judge in Chicago explains how qualifications should be the primary criteria for selecting any political candidate, but that representation is also important. Linda Pauel is of Dutch, Jamaican and Chinese descent. She is addressing a gathering of gay and lesbian members of i2i, which stands for Invisible to Invincible--a social-activist group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Asian-Pacific Americans.

Who’s Up for a March?

This Sunday, hopefully thousands of Americans will march on Washington, D.C.’s Mall to raise awareness of the need for equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian men and women in the United States.

I’m sad to say that I won’t be there. I would have gone if I knew this was happening. I didn’t hear about it until two weeks ago. Two weeks? Is that enough time to book a flight and make arrangements to go to D.C. from the West Coast? Since my sister lives in D.C., I probably could have bunked out with her. But even before I knew this march was actually going to happen, I already committed to other plans for this Columbus Day weekend.

This is the problem with the organizing of what should be the National Equality March. I heard the proposal for the march last year when everyone was into marching the streets to protest Prop. 8. But then there were rumblings about when it should take place and who’s going to plan it. This grassroots effort was too grassroots, meaning it didn’t have any national structure to gather all the various LGBT efforts and then get the word out.

So who will show up this weekend? I know for sure the entire cast of Broadway’s “Hair” will be there, as I read in the New York Times that the producers will close the show for one day to let the actors participate in the march. I think that’s great, and it’s that spirit that will bring a positive feel to the march. There will probably be a lot of people on the East Coast who probably might drive down to D.C. for the march. But there will also be lots of people like myself, who will be there in spirit. Maybe the next march we’ll get more advanced notice.

Multi-Cultural Interviews in Windy City Times (Chicago)

Numerous interviews focusing on cultural experiences within Chicago's gay community were published online at Windy City Times this week. Here's one excerpt:

Phillip Ozaki, 22, Filipino and Japanese-American:

"As if I didn't have enough identity struggle being both Japanese and Filipino, and American, to add the gay identity to it is just a huge struggle."

"The Japanese perspective is one of practicality. It's like, 'Why would you marry a gay person? You can't have kids.' In Japanese culture you're supposed to be very socialized and very like everybody else. It's very taboo and unknown and invalid to be a homosexual.

"But Japanese Americans have this long history of struggle and internment camps and especially civil rights. So I feel like they're more tolerant of other cultures especially the gay community because they understand that American culture can take away the rights of minorities just for being a certain identity.

"The Filipino perspective is very different. Gay means super flamboyant. They're really Catholic. The majority of gay Filipinos I've met are closeted to their parents, and identify as bisexual as a leeway to act like they're straight. In Filipino-American culture I'd say it's the same way: very closeted, very Catholic, very not discussed.

"It's as if no one really gets me, I think. Because I'm ethnic and because I'm a minority it's like this double minority. It's like I'm double silenced. The way I like to say it is: The more of a struggle you have the more you have to fight for."

Houston Wins ifCON 2011

Congratulations to Houston for winning the honor of hosting ifCON 2011. Below are Houston organizers Bob and Sam accepting the honor. Chicago will be hosting next year in the form of a cruise to the Bahamas, while Denver won the honor for 2012.

Pageantry

The ifCON banquet was an opportunity for attendees to get dressed up to the "Gone With the Wind" theme. Here, Ashley and Miss Pitty Pat are targets for the paparazzi. The set was for the "Gone With the Geisha" play that framed the talent show.

ifCON Reception Dinner

The theme of the ifCON reception dinner was "Gone with the Wind." You can see a little bit of that flair in these photos:

ifCON Visit to Stone Mountain

One of the most breathtaking parts of the ifCON series of events was our trip to Stone Mountain. Granted, it was a little KKK with the tribute to the fallen Southern generals, but the Atlanta organizers got us the primo terrace seating and the laser and fireworks show later was spectacular.

Workshops at ifCON 2009

Attendees at ifCON 2009 in Atlanta over Labor Day also participated in different workshops, ranging from jazz dance to immigration issues. Here are some video snippets.

Jazz dance workshop.



Creative writing seminar.



Immigration discussion.

AFC at 25

Taking a step back in time for a moment, Asians and Friends Chicago celebrated its 25th Anniversary year starting with its annual anniversary party a couple weeks back. Here's a couple of photos.

ifCON 2009 -- The Recap Begins

After a full Labor Day Weekend of Asians and Friends and Long Yang Club's ifCON 2009in Atlanta, numerous photos and video clips documenting this year's event are now here and being sorted through. Just a taste of some of the memories are here ...







More to come through the month of September.