First Look Into New Transitions

Dear beloved community,

One of the first things I did as LavNix’s Executive Director was speak to a small group of our elders—Vince Crisostomo, Lori Lai, Doreena Wong, Dino Duazo, & Gisele Pohan—about what it meant to them for us to change our name to Lavender Phoenix. I smiled as Doreena said she co-founded Phoenix Rising because “that’s home to me, it’s my family.” I listened as Gisele spoke about quilting the many names of loved ones who passed at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, to make sure “every name has a place.” I closed my eyes as Vince said, “I wish you all love.” We talked about the long lineage of transgender & queer Asians & Pacific Islanders who loved each other through impossible conditions. I felt LavNix’s place in that lineage, & I felt honored to step into a leadership role, to help our community establish new futures.

At the end of this year, I will transition out of my role as LavNix’s Executive Director. I feel so grateful for my time in this role, & I feel excited to identify & onboard a new Executive Director. Our next ED will guide LavNix through a formidable political period, as we face multiplying attacks on trans communities, persistent efforts by the Right-wing to win over working-class Asians & Pacific Islanders, & more. Despite this, I feel confident in LavNix, & hopeful. After all, we have prepared relentlessly for this moment: in my time in this role, LavNix has strengthened our organizing power & sturdied our infrastructure to turn these challenges into opportunities.

• We grew our staff from three to nine full-time organizers & leaders, including hiring our first-ever Lead Organizer, Deputy Director, Membership Coordinator, & more.
• We established the “Care Not Cops” campaign to challenge the San Francisco PD’s growing budget & redirect its funding towards resources for housing & healing care.
• We expanded membership to nearly 80 members who lead six committees & steer critical programs like our “Protect Our People” Trainings & Trans API Peer Counseling.
• We developed new trans & queer API leaders, from founding the “Rise Up” program to orient new members to leading the Summer Organizer Program’s upcoming 16th year.
• We built long-term national partnerships to strengthen the multiracial working class, including with the Grassroots Asians Rising coalition & with the Rising Majority.

The shared leadership of staff & members, as well as the commitment of supporters like you, makes this possible. I look forward to starting soon to recruit an Executive Director who will guide this critical work (look out for a hiring announcement next week!), & I plan to overlap with them for at least 5 months to onboard them into this role with support & care.

As I navigate my last year on our staff, I can’t help but reflect on nearly eight years of helping steward this organization, & on the transformation & boundless lessons it has brought me.

I joined this organization almost eight years ago through the Summer Organizer Program. On my first day, I felt too nervous to open the door: what if every experience of isolation I felt so accustomed to repeated themselves here? But I still remember the beaming smiles of the members who welcomed me in like family after I finally summoned the courage to knock. I remember the warmth in my chest as we poured vinegar into each other’s fire cider jars & spoke blessings for each other’s medicines. I remember crying on the 2nd floor of the office as I sifted through my money traumas to learn how I could fundraise in my values & ask for help.

I returned to join the staff as our first Trans Justice organizer less than a year later. Alongside Trans Justice Committee members, I sorted through hundreds of stories of healing & safety in our groundbreaking “Up To Us” Needs Assessment. I watched LavNix members & staff brave rocks & jeers thrown by onlookers as we marched to protest police at Pride. I saw us struggle through the early years of COVID to stay connected across age & social distance, to learn from our elders & to channel their love & perseverance into the Dragon Fruit Phone Tree, the Dragon Fruit Museum, online Asking For Help workshops that trained hundreds, & more.

Saying “yes” in 2021 to become LavNix’s Executive Director meant choosing to take care of the organization—of the people & the purpose that knits us together—that helped me shed a lifetime of isolation & find parts of me altogether more courageous & vulnerable. It meant applying our new Theory of Change to lead exciting care & safety experiments while growing the united front to challenge police power in San Francisco. It meant scaling our resources, expanding leadership development programs, & growing our staff to match our capacity with our visions. It meant building lasting relationships across racial & gender justice sectors, advancing voices of transgender BIPOC in our movements, & building the cohesion of the Left. It meant finding new ways to create cultures to sustain our movement work for the long-haul.

LavNix will continue to prove to all of us that another world is possible. With the committed leadership of our staff & the passion of our members, I know our campaigns & programs will continue to excel. I look forward to passing this role into trusted hands. Beyond this year-long transition process, I cannot wait to continue supporting LavNix as a member & as an advisor.

Thank you for welcoming a younger me in, for holding me in my fears & my hope. For trusting me to help hold this work. I look forward to a lifetime of working for our liberation with you.

With love & commitment,
Yuan