By Kiersten Hacker
When Maya Kang attended Quelcome, University of Maryland’s queer student welcome event, she noticed that there were no organizations designated for students who identify as Asian American and LGBTQ.
So, the sophomore government and politics and English double major called her close friend to share her observation.
“I said to my friend, ‘Hey, there should be a space for the LGBTQ Asian community and allies to support our issues, to maintain a community and to make friendships,’” Kang said.
From there, the organization Gaysians at UMD grew. Kang created an interest form and launched an Instagram account to spread the word and gauge student interest. After a positive response, she started to set up an executive board and take the next steps to register the club.
Kang’s close friend Louie Hankins, a sophomore accounting and information systems double major, reached out and asked her how he could help. The two are members of the same College Park Scholars program and had previously bonded over their shared identities. Hankins accepted the role of vice president and will help Kang lead the club.
“UMD is a really big campus, and trying to find other people like myself is kind of hard,” Hankins said. “So it’s just being able to feel a sense of comfort and community with people like yourself in such a big and diverse campus.”
The club was established faster than expected, Kang said, but they cannot become fully registered with the school until registration opens for new clubs. Even without being registered, the club has assembled an executive board and planned their first meeting for the general body. Kang said it is meant to be a low-stress environment where students can relax and have fun.
Soon, the group will hold events with other Asian organizations on campus such as the Japanese American Student Association and the Taiwanese American Student Association. Gaysians is planning other social events, with their biggest event being the Gaysians at UMD festival, which will occur each year in April.
“I think that it is important during college to have communities to gravitate to with students who share the same experiences and also share our differences, so I hope this mixer will provide that experience for our organizations,” Reina Mitrik, the co-president of the Japanese American Student Association said in an email.
The Gaysians at UMD festival will consist of booths from different Asian organizations on campus, raffles for prizes, games and cultural performances ranging from poetry to dancing and theater.
Aside from social events, the club will also focus on education. Kang said Gaysians is planning to work closely with the CARE to Stop Violence office and The Clothesline Project in their advocacy against sexual harassment. For more educational events, Kang said they are also planning to host a guest speaker about pansexual identities and perceptions.
“We want to highlight identities that don’t get as much attention as well. We also want to make it clear that we are very inclusive of South Asian individuals because South Asian individuals are too often discredited in the AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) community, so that’s going to be very important,” Kang said.
Both Hankins and Kang defined Gaysians as an inclusive and welcoming community for all students, regardless of backgrounds, even though they focus on the intersection of Asian and LGBTQ identities. Allies are also welcome, as they can offer a different, unique perspective about privilege and use their privilege to speak out about issues affecting the oppressed, Kang said.
UMD is a diverse campus with many intersecting identities among individuals, and for Kang, she experiences the intersection of being biracial, bisexual and a woman. She said she wants to create solidarity within the Gaysians community to fight any type of oppression.
“When you feel different it is really easy to feel outcasted, and I don’t want anyone to feel like that. So that’s why I want to make the most inclusive space as possible.”
Hankins also said it is important to provide representation for intersecting identities at Gaysians while also creating a safe space, since many students come from a strict heteronormative background, which often presents challenges.
The club does not have an official mission statement yet, but to Hankins the goal is “to create an environment where UMD students who identify as both Asian and LGBTQ could safely meet and comfortably interact with each other, and to promote and raise awareness about issues that the intersection between those identities face.”
Featured image: Gaysians at UMD revealed their logo on Sept. 29 on their Instagram. The logo was designed by Cora Keene. Photo courtesy of Gaysians of UMD.