Who we are
The QTAPI Coalition of the SF Bay Area is a loosely organized unincorporated association of Queer and Transgender Asian and Pacific Islander (QTAPI) organizations, advocates, and allies. Founded by Michael T. Nguyen in the wake of increased violence against the AAPI community in 2021, the QTAPI Coalition of the SF Bay Area produced the first QTAPI Week in the Nation (See recap in GAPA’s LavZilla).
The QTAPI Coalition of the SF Bay Area first collaborated in 2019 to organize a series of Queer Lunar New Year celebrations, produced by various San Francisco API queer and organizations whose origins date back to the 1980s, including GLBT Historical Society, Lavender Phoenix (formerly APIENC), GAPA, Prism Foundation, GAPA Theatre, GAPA Chorus, SF Community Health Center, SF AIDS Foundation, Rice Rockettes, RIZE, APIQWTC, Trikone, Red Envelope Giving Circle, Project Ohana in the Bay, Horizons Foundation, NQAPIA, OpenHouse, SF Pride, UTOPIA, PARIVAR, Castro LGBTQ Cultural District and more!.
“For over forty years, there have been almost no spaces in which API gay, lesbians, and trans folks can come together to organize and build co-gender community until QTAPI began its week of celebration, timed appropriately at the end of API History Month and at the beginning of Pride,” writes queer historian Amy Sueyoshi in support of QTAPI Week. She continues, “[o]nly in San Francisco where a concentrated, out and proud, queer and API population reside, could a coalition such as QTAPI form and organize a week of monumental consequence.”
Co-founder Nick Large first began organizing with Michael in 2019 to bring forward a week of events for the QTAPI community.
QTAPI Coalition is fiscally sponsored by GAPA Fund, a California public benefit corporation determined to be exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Both organizations share a commitment to advancing the interests of queer and transgender Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Since 2019, they have uplifted issues facing the QTAPI community, encouraging community based organizations and/or new coalitions to support small businesses while promoting QTAPI Week, such as organizing opening and closing parties at nightclubs, encouraging gatherings to occur at Queer, Trans and/or AAPI owned businesses, and highlighting the achievements of QTAPI small business owners, including drag and nightlife promoters and queer crafters. Through QTAPI Week, Michael and Nick have been able to generate new opportunities for economic growth of these small businesses, creating new audiences, and generating interest in an untapped market. In 2022, five additional Bay Area counties proclaimed QTAPI week and the following year QTAPI Week launched nationally, due to Michael and Nick’s participation at the Creating Change conference in San Francisco, where they secured time to talk to the API caucus at the conference.
In 2023 the “Fresh Off The Block” QTAPI Week closing block party successfully brought over 500 people to the Castro neighborhood throughout the course of the day. The event featured 13 partnering organizations who were able to connect people to their programming and membership, multiple local vendors, activity stations including a photobooth and fan making station, and 11 intergenerational performances that largely featured trans and non-binary performers (including several Native Hawaiian performers) as well as all LGBTQ AAPI dancers, tai chi demonstrators, DJs and drag performers.
Photo by Kevin Zhao. Michael T. Nguyen at the Castro to Chinatown: An LGBTQ March for Asian Lives, March 21, 2021. Additional Photos available here.
Nick Large as Kristi Yummykochi at the Fresh off the Block QTAPI Week Closing Block Party, June 3, 2023
What is our Mission for QTAPI Week?
1) To unite and support QTAPI community around a creating a visibility week;
2) To work with local government officials to recognize the importance of this often overlooked and marginalized community; and
3) To incentivize behavior that will benefit and encourage growth of community-based organizations across the region in developing programming that addresses the intersectional needs of the QTAPI community.
FAQs
What is QTAPI Week?
First held between May 22-29, of 2021, Queer and Trans Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Week was proclaimed in San Francisco by the Board of Supervisors during a time of increasing anti-Asian hate in the SF Bay Area. The week serves as a metaphorical bridge between API Heritage month in May and Pride Month in June, showing that our identities are interconnected, and can have compounding impacts. The first week consisted of a series of events, both in-person and online, organized through participating organizations in the Bay Area QTAPI Coalition.
How can I participate in QTAPI Week?
Conceptually, QTAPI week is meant to serve as a dedicated space for queer and trans A&PI people to celebrate, explore, heal, and build community with one another. Intentionally set during a time that overlaps with both API Heritage month and Pride month, it’s simply a collection of events that happen during a designated time frame. To participate in QTAPI week, you can simply host a single event and be part of a larger set of events occurring nationally, or you can organize a week of programming for your area. Several options are laid out below and are meant to provide potential suggestions. They are not meant to be specific and limiting categories
Options for Participation:
Option 1: Organize a single event
If you’re only interested in a single event (which is fine), you can promote it as part of a larger series of programming happening nationally and also key your membership/viewership into any of the virtual events happening around the country. Tapping into the list of virtual events happening around the country can help decrease the lift on each local group.
Option 2: Organize a week of programming in your local area
For areas or organizations with higher levels of capacity, you can organize a week of different programming. This can be a series of events and other kinds of programming that speak to your local history, issues, and community. Lift for this is higher and it’s recommended to work across organizations and agencies to secure programming.
Option 3: Have a resolution passed/week declared through your local city, county, or elected representative
Having a week/day/resolution or proclamation of significance passed can be a relatively easy way to bring attention to an issue or cause. Depending on where you are located, you might consider doing it at the city or county level, or having some other kind of elected official (like a mayor) make a declaration. You will typically have to work through an elected official/office to do this but it’s not very hard and they always want the publicity.
Option 4: Combination of the above
Check out this document for more resources!
What was the first Block Party like?
In 2023, we held the first QTAPI Week Block Party, Fresh Off The Block, on Noe St between Market and Beaver. The block party brought various community groups, performers, and vendors from around the Bay Area working with queer and trans API communities together for a large-scale collaborative event. Building off prior events, Fresh Off The Block had booths where community organizations such as Lavender Phoenix, GAPA, and the Harvey Milk LGBTQ+ Democratic Club together to engage attendees with their programming and initiatives. More info on this year’s Block Party here and here.
Contact us
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