Midwest Solidarity Movement

We are currently a collective of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) Southeast Asian/Asian American organizers building for Asian American, Pacific Islander and Communities of Color solidarity in the Midwest. Our framework focuses on community education and leadership development emphasizing on critical reflections and conscious raising at the intersections for social justice. MWSM's core is creating spaces in the community and online where LGBTQ AAPI utilize arts and narratives to positively shape their lives and organize for social change.

[mwsmovement]

Model Minority Mutiny T-shirt Fundraiser by MWSM

Model Minority Mutiny T-shirt Fundraiser by MWSM

Support Asians organizing in Minnesota by purchasing these 2 styles of t-shirts: Model Minority Mutiny (color: Black) or We Will Not Be Silent (color: turquoise); made by mwsmovement.com. Submit your purchases here: http://bit.ly/1o5B6yM 50% of the proceeds will be donated to the organizing efforts of APIs4BlackLives MN chapter (bit.ly/FBAPIs4BlackLivesMN). Represent Asians organizing for…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

Hmong American LGBTQ Mental Health Research

There is a lack of research when it comes to behavior health within the Hmong community, especially the Hmong LGBTQIA community. Are you Hmong American and do you identify as LGBTQIA? Would you be ...

[mwsmovement]

Opening Doors: Sacramento Hmong LGBTQIA Meet-Up

Happy New Year! This piece a reflection to the Sacramento Hmong LGBTQIA Meet-Up in December.

Someone once told me, “You can empower and educate yourself to the fullest extent, but your community will remain the same.” As an organizer, this quote stuck to me. I have always wanted to build a space for Hmong Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA) people to create awareness, education, and take action for a healthier community. I have only lived in…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

Hmong LGBTQIA community members are putting together a meet up in Sacramento. If you have ever felt alone as a Hmong LGBTQIA, we want to provide a safe place for you to build lasting friendships and support through resources. Please SHARE and click on the video for more information.

[mwsmovement]

For Hmong Who Has Seen Too Many Black Lives Taken

For Hmong Who Has Seen Too Many Black Lives Taken

Photography by Patience Zalanga I am a queer Hmong American refugee, whose shared experiences and encounters with white supremacist violence has compelled me to rise in solidarity with Blacks who are currently facing a very dire situation in this country. I am wondering, why are Hmong Americans not showing solidarities with Blacks? We see too often the anti-Black racism spewed out by members of…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

AAPI LGBTQ Pride: To Be Me

AAPI LGBTQ Pride: To Be Me http://wp.me/p28TQR-wV

Growing up in a Hmong family with 3 other brothers and 1 sister was a real struggle to get by as my parents and close family members expected so much of me to succeed just like my uncle. I was born the second son in our family of 7, including my parents. Here is my story… Ever since I could remember, my family had always praised me to be the brightest, and a person who would always listen to…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

Im Hiding the Best of Me

Im Hiding the Best of Me

Phiengtavanh was born in Vientiane, Laos in 1981; her family immigrated to the U.S when she was 4 years old to escape communism.  She is the eldest sibling with two younger sisters, and a brother. She grew up in North Minneapolis.  At age 17, she enlisted in the military for personal and professional goals; and pursued college at Saint Cloud State University while continuing her service to the MN…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

Refugee's Baby Memories

Refugee’s Baby Memories

Existing in ruptures, I suppose that is the consequences of living life. In 1993, my family went aboard an airplane that would bring us to the United States. It was not an easy flight, and as I know now, nothing about this life is ever easy. The dizzying pain of the shuttering noise overwhelmed me, leaving pungent ailments, vomit all over my own shirt. I was from a refugee camp, which my tender…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

AAPI LGBTQ Pride: Learning to Choose Who to Love Wisely

AAPI LGBTQ Pride: Learning to Choose Who to Love Wisely

  Source: http://bit.ly/1LKMgQ2 A couple of years ago, I met someone I really wanted to be with and it was love at first sight. When I confessed to her my feelings, she told me she liked me as well but was too afraid to fall in love with me. We saw each other for a month then she stopped talking to me and I didn’t understand what I did wrong. It made me feel like a fool. Ever since I was young, I…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

AAPI LGBTQ Pride: My Difficulty in Coming Out

AAPI LGBTQ Pride: My Difficulty in Coming Out.

msmadge.blogspot.com My parents are old fashioned Filipino Christians. They are not so open-minded when it comes to lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer sexuality. Although I was raised by them in this hetero-normative belief, I realized I liked boys at a very young age, which was around 11 years old. I knew this because I was attracted to our neighbor who was a few years older than me. While growing…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

AAPI LGBTQ Pride: I Am My Father's Son & My Mother's Daughter

AAPI LGBTQ PRIDE: I Am My Father's Son & My Mother's Daughter http://wp.me/p28TQR-t0

My secret dwelled deep. I asked myself if I could live in my secret forever. I am a Hmong gay man and a Hmong Drag Queen. I am my father’s gay son and my mother’s drag daughter. I am both a man and a woman and at the same time neither a man or a woman. I do know that I am Hmong, no matter if I identify as a man, woman, or neither. My gay identity made me “less” of a man, according to my family…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

Celebrating our AAPI LGBTQ Pride

Celebrating our AAPI LGBTQ Pride

Source: http://conta.cc/1FnSbVO June is the time of the year that PRIDE month is celebrated across the United States and the world. A time for our LGBTQ and ally community to engage in festivities, parades and march with pride to remember those who came before us, who we are now and where we want to be. Through the celebrations and fun, we must remember that our fight to end discrimination and…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

AAPI Heritage Month: I Write from the “We” that is Erased by Assimilation

AAPI Heritage Month: I write from the “we” that is erased by assimilation

  Film Screening: Hafu: the mixed race experience in Japan. Source: hafufilm.com/en Growing up fourth generation, developing an identity as an Asian American has felt like something of a choice, or a process. Perhaps it was inevitable but it feels like a reaction. I think that for some folks in immigrant communities who are first or second generation, ethnic identity can involve a strong cultural…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

AAPI Heritage Month: Where Do I Start?

Source: http://www.thenation.com/article/172643/ten-things-end-rape-culture Where do I start? Writing a narrative is a bit challenging. I do not know where and when I should start my narrative. I mean, I have erased my sentences a few times, and just when I thought it was a good start, I erased it all over again. Was I too blunt and in your face? Am I taking too long to get to the point? Gosh,…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

AAPI Heritage Month: Citizenship In An Exiled Nation

AAPI Heritage Month: Citizenship In An Exiled Nation

  What does it mean to live in exile? To be a minority within a minority? To call oneself “Tibetan-American?”As young Tibetan exiles, a sense of physical security in our adopted country is almost always accompanied by a kind of emotional distance. As a people who’ve been dislocated, all we have left is the memory of our lost country.

I remember when my refugee mother once told me that her “soul…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

AAPI Heritage Month: I was Out, Proud, and Did Not Care what I Had to Lose

AAPI Heritage Month: I was Out, Proud, and Did Not Care what I Had to Lose

  Guinness World Records largest human rainbow held in Philippines from Polytechnic University – Source: noypicollections.blogspot.com

I am a Queer Filipina Womyn of Color. I was born and raised 17 years of my life in the Philippines.  I migrated to the United States back in 1999. It was during my college years in 2002 that I realized that I was attracted to womyn and fully know what it was, with…

View On WordPress

[mwsmovement]

AAPI Heritage Month: Staring at the Outside, Looking Through the Mirror

http://theintimacydojo.com/stories-to-reduce-shame-bawdy-storytelling/

Everyday the world keeps turning, and the sun rises rides through the fire endlessly trying to catch the moon. In ancient times, there were countless stories and legends that began to explain the relationship between the sun and the moon. Were they lovers separated by some dismal force, hell bent on keep them apart for its own…

View On WordPress