California Attorney General Rob Bonta met with San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Police Chief Bill Scott, and community leaders on Sept. 9 in the city’s Visitacion Valley to have a discussion on hate crimes. The event was the first in a series of roundtable discussions being held by Bonta with leaders throughout the state, focusing […]
AG Bonta meets with city leaders for 1st of several statewide discussions to prevent hate crimes
September 16, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Muslim officer who complained about racism, misconduct alleging retaliation
May 10, 2018 by Leave a Comment
A San Francisco police officer said April 10 he is being targeted and retaliated against for filing a complaint last year against other officers in which he claimed racial and religious discrimination. The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office announced that the officer, who’s not being named, initially made the complaint because in addition to being […]
San Francisco’s Japantown holds vigil against post-election hate
December 1, 2016 by 1 Comment
Two weeks after the election of Donald J. Trump as the next president of the United States, a crowd of about 500 people gathered at San Francisco Japantown’s Peace Plaza Nov. 22 to hold a candlelight vigil to express their unity with the groups affected by the hateful rhetoric that both the president-elect and his […]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: The JACL’s historic support for marriage equality
June 23, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Ever since I have been writing my Nichi Bei column “The Great Unknown and the Unknown Great” in 2007, I have devoted an annual column to studying the history of Japanese American sexuality, and in particular in-group attitudes toward homosexuality and the presence of gays and lesbians. I am proud to continue that tradition with […]
An open letter about Orlando from Asian American Parents Who Love Our LGBTQ Kids
June 23, 2016 by Leave a Comment
We, the Asian American Parents Who Love Our LGBTQ Kids, are heartbroken about the Orlando tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families, both given and chosen, especially their parents. Our thoughts are with those who were injured and are still fighting for their lives and those who are suffering emotional […]
Officers to receive harassment training in wake of racist text messages
May 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment
All members of the San Francisco Police Department will participate in training to prevent harassment and discrimination in the workplace after racist and derogatory text messages discovered during an investigation into sexual assault allegations by an officer were recently made public, police Chief Greg Suhr said April 29. Suhr made the announcement during a news […]
‘Living in the Shadows of Exclusion’: LGBT Asian America
August 20, 2015 by Leave a Comment
History may forget Asian Americans who are part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer spectrum, according to one historian involved in the LGBT movement. “History isn’t kind to those who are marginalized to multiple spaces. Your history doesn’t exist in the LGBT history, it doesn’t exist in the Asian American history,” said Anna […]
Intersections of same-sex marriage and Japanese Americans
July 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The U.S. Supreme Court made a landmark 5-4 decision in favor of same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges June 26, affirming that all states must recognize same-sex marriages. The fight for same-sex marriage, with roots in the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York, took decades of activism before gaining the public’s approval and support, including […]
Bring back the assault weapons ban
There are moments when as a member of the ethnic press we must leverage our collective voice, to push our nation’s leaders to act in the interest of the communities we serve. This is one of those moments. In the early morning of June 12, a gunman in Orlando, Fla. entered a gay nightclub and massacred 49 […]