Slicing Silence: Asian Progressives Come Out
[excerpt]
By Daniel Tsang
It was at the University of Michigan in the 1970s when my two identities [gay and Asian American] came together again. It was not easy at first. I was active in Ann Arbor's Gay Liberation Front. I recall weekly meetings where we expressed distrust of straight media and reporters, refusing interviews with them. Instead, we trusted the underground press, and I for one became an activist while writing for the alternative press.
At the time many of us remained active in progressive causes because we sought a radical restructuring of America. We rejected straight [heterosexual] depictions of us as psychologically impaired or as incapable of progressive work. We knew these stereotypes weren't true. We remained activists even when we suffered racism or homophobia, because of this larger goal of changing overall society. And we saw our struggle as part and parcel of people of color struggles.
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