Category: Blog

Image: On a gradient purple background reads Lavender Phoenix, Build Trans & Queer API Power! Apply by 2/28, bit.ly/LAVNIX23, Summer Organizer Program, with a photo of trans and queer APIs on Zoom.

2023 Summer Organizer Program – Apply by 2/28!

Do you want to work with trans, non-binary, and queer Asian and Pasifika communities?Do you have a commitment to social justice, liberation, and collective transformation?Are you ready to learn concrete organizing skills and build movements for change? The APPLICATION for Lavender Phoenix’s Summer Organizer Program is OPEN! Applications are due February 28th, 2023! PURPOSE: Every

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A crowd of 40 trans and queer APIs gather around a banner that reads "We have always EXISTED, we have always BELONGED."

What does hope make possible?

“To hope is dangerous, and yet it is the opposite of fear, for to live is to risk.” – Rebeca Solnit, Hope in the Dark Dear Lavender Phoenix Community, My heart split open when I first learned about Jaxon. Jaxon, a young gay Korean adoptee, was found dead in suspicious circumstances in the home of

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Image description: on a purple background bold text says "WELCOME CYNTHIA! OUR NEW LEAD ORGANIZER" and Cynthia smiles while playing a large drum strapped to their shoulders and marching.on a pink background. To the right, bold text says "WELCOME ERI! OUR NEW DEVELOPMENT MANAGER" and Eri in a blue outfit and a red cap smiles at the camera.

Welcome LavNix’s New Leaders!

Dear Lavender Phoenix Community, I’m excited to welcome two new staff leaders to Lavender Phoenix: eri oura (they/them) and Cynthia Fong (they/them)! eri, our new Development Manager, is an experienced fundraiser, educator, and builder of trans and queer BIPOC communities. Cynthia, our new Lead Organizer, is a long-time housing justice organizer, a founding member of

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Image description: Handwritten text that reads, "Lavender Phoenix 2022." with part of the zine cover drawing.

Trans Love Transcends Generations: A Zine Launch

Letters to Past and Future Selves is a collaborative zine created by the Lavender Phoenix community in honor of Trans Day of Remembrance 2022; through creative submissions including collage, illustration, poetry, playlists,  and other offerings, our community sat in vulnerability to share our stories and lived experiences of being Trans and API. In creating this zine,

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Image of Kenji at 60, black hair, brown eyes, Asian ‘mixed race,’ wearing a black t-shirt, crouched next to his nephews dog “cow”

What LavNix Does Was Impossible

On the eve of my 18th birthday, in the starting-to-become-summer month of May of 1980, I got to sleep in the arms of my boyfriend Danny. Having spent an overnight with him, in a friends spare bedroom, making love (before AIDS), away from the prying eyes of our families and the ‘fag bashing’ we feared,

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image description: Screenshot of 2022 Summer Organizer Day 1 Program participants, smiling on the zoom screen. Pictured from left to right, top to bottom: Yuan, Leo, Bisma, Chali, Jasmin, Celia, Christine, Cham, Julz, Shivani, Nancy, and Iris.

I learned the power of being honest.

Growing up, I could not imagine anyone accepting me for my queer and trans identities. I viewed these parts of myself as a burden that I had to carry, something ugly and unlovable. Believing that I could never show my queerness to anyone, I hid and silenced myself. In order to keep myself safe, I

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image description: screenshot of zoom supervision check in meeting, between Chali & Yuan.

We weave stories across generations

I grew up in a traditional Hmong household that practiced under a patriarchal system with gendered roles and a religious belief of Shamanism, the belief that spirits are intertwined with our physical reality. These traditions taught me that queer Hmong individuals do not have a place in our community because we do not fit the

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