The thing I didn’t have a chance to share at the Asian American Institute at Creating Change 2024 is that queer Asians for Palestine is not a new phenomenon. As more queer Asians become involved in the work today, because of the particularly horrific atrocities happening right now, I think this is a good time to reflect on existing work and how we are building on it.
When the Siegebusters Working Group was meeting in NYC’s LGBT center in Manhattan in 2010, I thought what was happening in the Middle East were religious conflicts. I had no idea why people geographically far away were so involved. When the center cancelled an event to be held there in 2011, Q-WAVE leadership was asked to witness the statements made by the center about this course of action. Even though I still didn’t understand the history of colonization, I knew queer Asians had a stake in Palestinian struggle.