Outreach embarks on an unprecedented diversification campaign |
By Marcelle Richards
Contributing Writer
Outreach’s aims to break down socioeconomic barriers and learn more about the communities it wishes to serve, while
educating those communities about the programming, educational materials and other resources, such as a library with public
computers, at Outreach. To date, the center has increased its media outreach and collaboration with community centers while
initiating educational programs, such as movie screenings, monthly poster presentations and ad hoc events (such as a reading
of queer African American literature) to diversify from within, funded by a $2500 grant from New Harvest Foundation.
“We’ve gotten more people in the agency who identify and people of color but we’re still not where we need to be and we’re not
connected in a meaningful way,” said Program Director Harry Straetz.
Outreach now sponsors Queer Shades of Color, a group facilitated by Board of Directors Vice President and volunteer,
Nilhan Gunasekera, to provide queer ethnic and racial minorities an opportunity to meet in a confidential setting.
“A lot of queer people of color are suffering from isolation,” said Gunesekera, adding that some may live a bit
schizophrenically, downplaying their racial or ethnic minority status within the queer community, and likewise subduing their
queer status within their racial or ethnic community.
Gunasekera has learned to find balance between the two, and part of that process for him has been to seek out other queer
South Asians.
His first experience of bridging communities that were inclusive of both his ethnicity and sexuality was in graduate school
in Minnesota, where he met a gay Indian man and a gay Pakastani man – both also partnered to white men – and they met on
Friday nights to eat traditional food and watch Bollywood movies.
“It gave me a sense of connection that I lacked when I was in small town Wisconsin,” he said.
Gunasekera acknowledges that there is not a homogenous group of people of color and that difference across culture,
generations, interracial backgrounds, as well as traditional versus non-traditional influences will be important in diversifying
Outreach.
DJ Johnstone, Indonesian by birth, and raised by American and Scottish parents, feels fortunate to have been raised in a
“multi-cultural, as well as open, honest environment from the beginning.”
“I feel that in being raised in America, and through the continuous support and unconditional love of my parents - I haven't
really felt a sense of 'commitment' or 'tie' to the Asian community, at large. This does not mean that I find myself less concerned
with various socio-political concerns throughout the world -- that incidentally pertain to the Asian community-at-large,” she said.
She participates in the ACT ride, and hockey and finds her sense of community through these activities, and although race and
ethnicity isn’t necessarily on her radar, she adds that she understands how some people may need a created space for uniting
with others who are of similar identities to open a doorway to a sense of community or acceptance.
“Heritage-wise, I've had 28 years to reflect on how fortunate I am. As some may know, the majority of the Indonesian culture
is deeply rooted in the Muslim faith. When I think back on what my birth-mother must have gone through -- to conceive a child
out of wedlock, and then to bear a child into and unknown world, and trust that strangers would see to a better life. I'm beyond
fortune(full),” Johnstone said. “As I was removed from the Indonesian culture (but was consistently reminded, and given ample
opportunity to re-trace my routes), I never really felt a sense of 'needing to keep something alive'. I know who I am.”
Mitch Nakaue, a 4th generation Japanese American, is also adopted but was brought up in a traditional Japanese American
family.
Japanese culture can be paradoxical when it comes to sex (and sexuality), Nakaue said. “Japanese culture is weirdly
hypersexed and yet asexual…respectable people have control over themselves all the time. Despite my piercings and tattoos
and shaved head I’m actually a conservative person so I think that’s a part of me.”
She and her heterosexual sister were both equally privy to “Japanese shame,” she said – “you want your child to be
exceptional but you also want your child to be like everyone else.”
Sex and sexuality wasn’t talked about, until her sister got married, at which point the question of children was raised, an
issue dealt with silence toward Nakaue and her partner. Although Nakaue and her partner considered adoption while
discussing family planning, and the idea of parenting an Asian child has recently become important for Nakaue, she said she
doesn’t think much about her ethnicity or sexuality although at times she becomes profoundly aware.
“I work on very white, very dead white people, mostly men,” said Nakaue, a PhD. student of 20th and 21st century English
and Irish literature relevant to different conceptions of Catholicism. “That’s one of the things that tends to surprise people about
me. I do not work on Asian American literature at all…I also feel there’s this institutionalized expectation to ‘do what we are’.”
Because of her career path, she feels that children can become a reality, although the costs of adoption and fertility
treatments are relatively prohibitive, running as much as $30,000-$40,000. As family issues take prominence, Nakaue finds
that she thinks about “things we might traditionally associate with traditional white upper middle class concerns – family,
buying a house, things like that.”
Nakaue mirrors similar sentiments as Gunasekera, in that she feels socioeconomic status, education, religion and “how the
integration of gay people into communities in which they formerly weren’t welcome” will be important to address over the next
10-20 years, she said.
“We are under no illusion that it is an easy task. It’s going to take many years. We see this as just the initial start up,”
Gunasekera said, adding, “the idea of diversification has to be a paradigm shift.”
Contributing Writer
Outreach’s aims to break down socioeconomic barriers and learn more about the communities it wishes to serve, while
educating those communities about the programming, educational materials and other resources, such as a library with public
computers, at Outreach. To date, the center has increased its media outreach and collaboration with community centers while
initiating educational programs, such as movie screenings, monthly poster presentations and ad hoc events (such as a reading
of queer African American literature) to diversify from within, funded by a $2500 grant from New Harvest Foundation.
“We’ve gotten more people in the agency who identify and people of color but we’re still not where we need to be and we’re not
connected in a meaningful way,” said Program Director Harry Straetz.
Outreach now sponsors Queer Shades of Color, a group facilitated by Board of Directors Vice President and volunteer,
Nilhan Gunasekera, to provide queer ethnic and racial minorities an opportunity to meet in a confidential setting.
“A lot of queer people of color are suffering from isolation,” said Gunesekera, adding that some may live a bit
schizophrenically, downplaying their racial or ethnic minority status within the queer community, and likewise subduing their
queer status within their racial or ethnic community.
Gunasekera has learned to find balance between the two, and part of that process for him has been to seek out other queer
South Asians.
His first experience of bridging communities that were inclusive of both his ethnicity and sexuality was in graduate school
in Minnesota, where he met a gay Indian man and a gay Pakastani man – both also partnered to white men – and they met on
Friday nights to eat traditional food and watch Bollywood movies.
“It gave me a sense of connection that I lacked when I was in small town Wisconsin,” he said.
Gunasekera acknowledges that there is not a homogenous group of people of color and that difference across culture,
generations, interracial backgrounds, as well as traditional versus non-traditional influences will be important in diversifying
Outreach.
DJ Johnstone, Indonesian by birth, and raised by American and Scottish parents, feels fortunate to have been raised in a
“multi-cultural, as well as open, honest environment from the beginning.”
“I feel that in being raised in America, and through the continuous support and unconditional love of my parents - I haven't
really felt a sense of 'commitment' or 'tie' to the Asian community, at large. This does not mean that I find myself less concerned
with various socio-political concerns throughout the world -- that incidentally pertain to the Asian community-at-large,” she said.
She participates in the ACT ride, and hockey and finds her sense of community through these activities, and although race and
ethnicity isn’t necessarily on her radar, she adds that she understands how some people may need a created space for uniting
with others who are of similar identities to open a doorway to a sense of community or acceptance.
“Heritage-wise, I've had 28 years to reflect on how fortunate I am. As some may know, the majority of the Indonesian culture
is deeply rooted in the Muslim faith. When I think back on what my birth-mother must have gone through -- to conceive a child
out of wedlock, and then to bear a child into and unknown world, and trust that strangers would see to a better life. I'm beyond
fortune(full),” Johnstone said. “As I was removed from the Indonesian culture (but was consistently reminded, and given ample
opportunity to re-trace my routes), I never really felt a sense of 'needing to keep something alive'. I know who I am.”
Mitch Nakaue, a 4th generation Japanese American, is also adopted but was brought up in a traditional Japanese American
family.
Japanese culture can be paradoxical when it comes to sex (and sexuality), Nakaue said. “Japanese culture is weirdly
hypersexed and yet asexual…respectable people have control over themselves all the time. Despite my piercings and tattoos
and shaved head I’m actually a conservative person so I think that’s a part of me.”
She and her heterosexual sister were both equally privy to “Japanese shame,” she said – “you want your child to be
exceptional but you also want your child to be like everyone else.”
Sex and sexuality wasn’t talked about, until her sister got married, at which point the question of children was raised, an
issue dealt with silence toward Nakaue and her partner. Although Nakaue and her partner considered adoption while
discussing family planning, and the idea of parenting an Asian child has recently become important for Nakaue, she said she
doesn’t think much about her ethnicity or sexuality although at times she becomes profoundly aware.
“I work on very white, very dead white people, mostly men,” said Nakaue, a PhD. student of 20th and 21st century English
and Irish literature relevant to different conceptions of Catholicism. “That’s one of the things that tends to surprise people about
me. I do not work on Asian American literature at all…I also feel there’s this institutionalized expectation to ‘do what we are’.”
Because of her career path, she feels that children can become a reality, although the costs of adoption and fertility
treatments are relatively prohibitive, running as much as $30,000-$40,000. As family issues take prominence, Nakaue finds
that she thinks about “things we might traditionally associate with traditional white upper middle class concerns – family,
buying a house, things like that.”
Nakaue mirrors similar sentiments as Gunasekera, in that she feels socioeconomic status, education, religion and “how the
integration of gay people into communities in which they formerly weren’t welcome” will be important to address over the next
10-20 years, she said.
“We are under no illusion that it is an easy task. It’s going to take many years. We see this as just the initial start up,”
Gunasekera said, adding, “the idea of diversification has to be a paradigm shift.”
| Social and Support Services at Outreach Queer Shades of Color Coming out support HIV prevention Smoking cessation Alcoholics Anonymous Transgender resources Men’s and women’s groups OutThere (18-24 social group) Senior Discussion Arts (Q-Cinema; Reading, Writing, and Relating LGBTQ Narratives) Meditation Parenting networks Visit www.lgbtoutreach.org for complete listing. |