LOS ANGELES — Disturbed by the United Methodist Church’s continuing anti-gay stance, Revs. Mark Nakagawa and Sunyoung Lee, two local ministers with connections to Little Tokyo’s Centenary United Methodist Church, publicly criticized that decision and declared their continued support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer persons. The controversy followed the United Methodist Church’s Special […]
L.A. ministers criticize anti-gay policy of United Methodist Churches
April 11, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Queering the inquiry of Asian American art
July 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment
QUEERING CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICAN ART Edited By Laura Kina and Jan Christian Bernabe (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017, 296 pp., $90 hardcover; $40 paperback) This anthology grows out of a National Endowment for the Humanities-sponsored Summer Institute held at New York University in 2012, co-directed by Margo Machida and Alexandra Chang and entitled, “Re-Envisioning […]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: Unmasking the complexities of documenting queer Nikkei sexuality and history
June 21, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This week’s column marks the 12th entry in the annual series on queer Japanese American history that I have undertaken to mark LGBT Pride Month. Previous entries have shed light on the nature of sexuality within Japanese communities, the rise and decline of homophobia, past gay activists and community debates over LGBT civil rights. This […]
Japanese American becomes majority owner of LGBTQ newspaper
January 4, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Michael Yamashita, 51, publisher of the Bay Area Reporter, a San Francisco-based LGBTQ newspaper, became the newspaper’s majority owner, the publication announced Dec. 21, 2017. According to the B.A.R., Yamashita becomes the nation’s first gay Asian American publisher and owner of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer newspaper. Yamashita, who previously owned 31 percent […]
Recognizing Japanese American lesbians’ activism, then and now
June 22, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The season for gay pride is upon us. This year, there is extra cause for celebration with the selection of professor Amy Sueyoshi, a community activist and leading historian of queer Asian Americans, as a grand marshal of the San Francisco Pride parade. In addition to Sueyoshi’s own considerable qualities, the choice is gratifying on […]
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: #Thiswas2016
January 1, 2017 by Leave a Comment
“When the house is going up in flames, does what’s on the TV matter?†That’s the question I kept asking myself as I sat down to write this year-end column. In October, Michael Luo, then an editor for The New York Times, was accosted on the street by a woman yelling, “Go back to China!†[…]
Transgender Americans are terrified of Trump
November 17, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Those who have seen me reporting for the paper may have noticed over the last four months that I am a transgender woman. I did not explicitly advertise this fact, given that my gender does not matter when I’m working on an assignment. The stories I write, after all, are not about me. However, with […]
Loved ones remember JA victim of Pulse club shooting
September 1, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Christopher Andrew Leinonen was one of 49 people slain in the early morning hours June 12 during the Pulse nightclub shooting. The shooting occurred inside the popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. frequented predominantly by members of the gay Latino community. It is considered the worst mass shooting against the LGBT community in the country’s […]
‘Star Trek Beyond’ identifies Sulu as gay
July 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The Australian Herald Sun reported July 7 that John Cho, who portrays Hikaru Sulu in the reboot of the “Star Trek†films, revealed that his character is gay, a decision made by “Star Trek Beyond’s†director Justin Lin and writer Simon Pegg. The decision serves as a nod to George Takei, who originally played Sulu, […]
More info visit: Digital.Nichibei.org
Trying to regain hope in a time of fear and uncertainty
As the election polls started closing on Nov. 8, most of America was in a state of utter shock, as a presidential candidate who so easily stoked the flames of racism, sexism, xenophobia and misogyny was suddenly trust into the office of the presidency. A mere eight years after a movement for hope and change […]