APIQWTC Annual Summer BBQ  

11am -4pm
Sat, September 25
Middle Harbor Shoreline Park
Oakland, CA

Dykes bike!  Lezzies get busy!  Queers Cheer!  Jocks rock! Bi's vie! 
An event full of sports, food, fun, and friends!!!

THE APIQWTC SUMMER PICNIC 2010!

Summer time is almost over -- let's end it with a bang, or a goal, or a twister competition! Come join the fun that sets up the fun. So, join APIQWTC to say good bye to Summer time by doing what we APILBTQs do best -- eating and fooling around!

EAT -- We'll be grillin' up all your summer time favorites, burgers, hot dogs, even grillers for the vegetarians. Come early for the eats 'cause when it gone - it's gone.

FOOL AROUND -- No, not that kind of fooling around. (ok, maybe that kind of fooling around but you're on your own for that.) We mean playing games and having tournaments with medals/prizes/trophies awarded to the winner. No need to be an uber-jock to win these tournaments. Think Pie Eating Contest and Twister... Bring your favorite sports stuff and start your own game! (Frisbee, Volleyball, Football, Twister…)

CHILL -- Plenty of shade provided for those who think "people watching" should be an official Olympic sport.

We had so much FUN every summer, so let’s do it again!

Adults:  $5 - $10 suggested donation
(no one will be turned away for lack of funds)

Other Upcoming Events:

• Celebrating Joannie's Life
  
  3pm - 5pm, Sat, August 28
  Kaiser Center Roof Garden
  300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland
  
  Direction Notes: 
  Please note that Elevator A access to the memorial can be gained only through the parking garage.
  
  It was a shocking news to many of us that our very own Joannie passed away recently at age 41 in New York City. Our thoughts and prayers are with her, her partner, and their families. Below is a well written article from SFGate.com:
  
  Joannie Chiung-Yueh Chang, a Bay Area civil rights attorney who worked on the nation's first paid family medical leave law and helped San Francisco implement its ground-breaking health coverage ordinance, died Saturday in New York City of stomach cancer. She was 41.
  
  She was diagnosed seven weeks ago while pregnant with twin daughters, who were born June 29, said Luna Yasui, her partner of eight years.
  
  Ms. Chang devoted her legal career to representing workers, women and minorities as a lawyer with Equal Rights Advocates, the Employment Law Center and the Asian Law Caucus.
  
  From 2007 until March, she worked for San Francisco's Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, drafting rules, contacting employers, and handling public inquiries about the first-in-the-nation ordinance providing care for the uninsured at a network of clinics and hospitals.
  
  + Read more...
  
  "She did what I thought was a four-person job," said Donna Levitt, who heads the office. "She laid the groundwork for us to follow through, to make it meaningful for workers who previously had no health insurance."
  
  Ms. Chang was also "the one who would bring the cupcakes and convene the potlucks and keep the spirits up," Levitt said.
  
  "She was a fabulous lawyer ... with a great heart, compassion for workers, their families, immigrants," said attorney Patricia Shiu, who supervised Ms. Chang at the Employment Law Center and worked with her on California's 2002 medical leave law. Shiu now heads the Obama administration's Office of Federal Contract Compliance.
  
  The law allows employees to take six weeks of leave each year, with partial pay, to care for an ailing family member or newborn child. Shiu said Ms. Chang worked with unions and other labor advocates to pass the law, then took part in drafting regulations to enforce it.
  
  The measure's author, state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, gave Ms. Chang a state commendation award in 2002. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors read testimonials to her on Tuesday.
  
  "She inspired us and made sure that we were focused on civil rights issues," board President David Chiu, who met and worked with Ms. Chang when both were young lawyers, said in an interview.
  
  A native of Taiwan, Ms. Chang grew up in New Jersey, attended Bryn Mawr College and New York University Law School, and clerked for a federal judge before joining Equal Rights Advocates, a feminist law firm in San Francisco, in the mid-1990s.
  
  "She knew how to talk to the clients, regardless of their education level, and then go into court and be a really strong advocate," said attorney Judith Kurtz, her supervisor at the firm.
  
  At the Employment Law Center, her next stop, one of Ms. Chang's cases resulted in a 2004 federal appeals court ruling that prohibited employers in discrimination cases from asking about the immigration status of the workers who had sued them, said attorney Christopher Ho, lead attorney on the case.
  
  She left the center for the Asian Law Caucus when that organization, the nation's oldest institution defending Asian American civil rights, had lost a number of staffers and was in danger of dissolving, said attorney Monty Agarwal, who was then its board chairman.
  
  "I asked her why she came, and she said, 'I couldn't stand back and let the caucus die.' It certainly wasn't for the money," Agarwal said. He said Ms. Chang supervised employment cases, replenished the staff, and worked on a suit on behalf of Filipinos who lost jobs as airport screeners after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
  
  She was also a fitness buff and an avid cyclist who went on long fundraising bicycle rides. William Tamayo, regional attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in San Francisco, said Ms. Chang helped prepare and guide him in a 400-mile bike ride in Hawaii in 2001 to raise money for AIDS treatment.
  
  She introduced him to some of the patients they would be helping, and "it was wonderful to see how many lives she touched," Tamayo said. "Joannie was adored by all these guys."
  
  Ms. Chang is survived by Yasui, her partner, of Brooklyn; daughters, Ayumi and Yuuki Chang-Yasui; and parents, Sakae and Bilin Chang, and brothers, Steven and Thomas Chang, all of Laguna Niguel (Orange County).
  
  A memorial service is scheduled for today in Brooklyn, and another will be held in San Francisco Bay Area on August 28th.
  
  More about the article please visit: http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-08-06/bay-area/22205822_1_ms-chang-civil-rights-equal-rights-advocates
  
   
• 7th Annual Family Presentation Banquet  
  "Public Recognition of Private Courage"
  -- Presented by API Family Pride
  
  11am, Sat, September 18
  Hotel Whitcomb
  1231 Market Street (x 8th Street)
  San Francisco, CA
  
  Tickets:   Adult $40 and children 5-10 years $20
  
  Purchase Online at  www.apifamilypride.org
  More Info:  PO Box 473, Fremont, CA 94537
  info@apifamilypride.org; 510-818-0887

  Honoring individual API Family who proudly support their LGBT children, relatives, and friends in spite of the prejudice the encounter. Join API Family Pride in celebrating stories of love, courage, and acceptance shared by family members and hose who honor them. Food, live cultural performances, raffle prizes, and a silent auction commemorate the festivities.
  
  Hotel Whitcomb is located conveniently on Market &  8th Street, right in front of the Civic Center Bart/Muni Station.  Parking available behind hotel on 8th Street.  Handicap access is available.
  
  
  
  
   

APIQWTC 2009 - 2010 scholarship announcement

Please join the APIQWTC scholarship committee in congratulating Tamiko Beyer and Adrienne Smith as our recipients of this year’s award. Both individuals distinguished themselves in their community activism and academic achievement among a very competitive pool of applicants.

TAMIKO BEYER:

APIQWTC is proud to announce Tamiko Beyer as a recipient of our 2009 scholarship!  Tamiko has a strong commitment to social change and teaching.  This commitment is clearly demonstrated in her volunteer activism.  Tamiko has completed her first year of her Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Washington University in St. Louis, MO.  She will be continuing her second year this fall.  Tamiko has a strong passion for creating poems that focus on political consciousness expressed in a unique fashion.  Her professor has described her work as compassionate, enthusiastic, and humorous.  In the writing program, Tamiko has taken on the role of poetry co-editor for her program's literary magazine.  In addition to her academic pursuits on campus, she has also been a part of the development of a LGBT organization for graduate students, staff, and faculty.  For her second year of her graduate program, she plans to teach poetry to undergraduate students.  Tamiko strives to create and develop community not only on the campus but also at the community level.  She has displayed her activism in many aspects such as serving as a counselor for a rape crisis center during her time in San Francisco and performed one woman shows in public schools about the World War II Japanese internment and the Holocaust.  In New York City, she has been involved in queer Asian American women and transgendered organizations and co-founded a multi-racial queer writing group that has performed across the United States.  Her most satisfying and inspiring projects have been the writing workshops she has taught to LGBT and at-risk youth. An amazing project that Tamiko has achieved was setting up a writing workshop for children in a housing residence for single parents who have HIV/AIDS.  Tamiko has a strong passion for activism through work and art in Asian American and LGBT communities.  Being a writer, Tamiko is often engaged in writing about queer identity and issues related to being Asian and mixed race.

ADRIENNE SMITH:

APIQWTC is proud to announce Adrienne Smith as a recipient of our 2009 scholarship! Adrienne received her Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish with a Minor in Psychology from New York University (NYU).  She will be starting her Masters Degree in Social Work in fall 2009.  Adrienne is a Korean American adoptee who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Volunteer activism is a large part of her life that is meaningful and fulfilling.  She currently works as a Treatment Coordinator at a non-profit clinic for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.  An inspiring aspect about her, is her volunteer involvement for the Trevor Project, a 24 hour, 7 days a week crisis and suicide prevention helpline for LGBTQ Youth in New York.  At the center, she volunteers as a counselor to discuss topics with youth ranging from coming out, sexuality, relationships, homelessness, and thoughts of suicide.  She also extensively assists in the training of new counselors and leads discussions on tolerance, diversity, and bullying.  Adrienne has displayed many characteristics of leadership and mentorship in the community.  She has been described as displaying strong characteristics of empathy, care, and professionalism. She is very dedicated to the safety and healthy development of LGBTQ Youth.  Adrienne looks forward to continuing her service to the LGBTQ Youth on a professional level after completing her Master's Degree in Social Work and after completing her Licensed Clinical Social Work (LCSW) certification.  Her calling and career focus is the field of mental health

Congratulations again to Tamiko Beyer and Adrienne Smith. We wish you the very best in your future endeavors !!! :-)

Last updated at August 28, 2010