Within Asian Pacific Islander (API) communities a strong, cohesive extended family has been identified as one of the most important indicators of good mental health. Unfortunately, holding together API families becomes especially challenging when API youth come out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning (LGBTQQ). API people are not any more homophobic or transphobic than any other racial/ethnic group. However, API sexual and gender identity traditions are different from dominant western norms and often lead to significant intergenerational communication challenges. The lack of intergenerational communication and shame around this issue, and the rejection of LGBTQQ youth by their parents, impacts not only the mental health of individuals and families, but the larger API community as well. More below

Updated July 01, 2005 LYRIC 127 Collingwood Street San Francisco, CA 94114 Phone: 415.703.6150 x13 Fax: 415.703.6153 These challenges have long been known within the LGBTQQ API community, but until recently, the opportunities were not available to begin delving into the issues or addressing them effectively. Within the greater United States, the Bay Area has the most potential to carry out this type of groundbreaking work successfully. San Francisco—which is known around the world as a “Gay mecca”—is also the home to a large and growing API population. 30% of San Francisco’s population and over 50% of all children in grades K-12 in the city are API, according to 2002 U.S. census data. There are also a plethora of services for the API community as well as the LGBTQQ community. In 2003, Asian & Pacific Islander Family Pride conducted a study, which reported that 92% of the 18-23 year old API lesbians that were surveyed identified family acceptance as their single most important individual need, above even their own personal safety. Shortly after the release of the study’s findings, API Family Pride and LYRIC decided to join forces by combining their resources and expertise, the former as it applied to API parents of LGBTQQ children, and the latter with the API youth population. Through this partnership, with funding provided by The California Endowment and Louis R. Lurie Foundation, the API Family Project was born. As a pilot project, ultimately its purpose is to learn as much as possible about API LGBTQQ youth, their parents, their relationship to each other and the effects of the divergent perspectives of American and API cultures on these families. The vision of the API Family project is to develop loving, compassionate, and strong families with LGBTQQ youth in Asian and Pacific Islander communities. In keeping with LYRIC’s philosophy of youth-led and community-led work, the project began by forming a steering committee comprised of API LGBTQQ youth, API LGBTQQ adults and API parents of LGBTQQ children to guide all aspects of the work. By drawing on these unique perspectives, we were able to identify more completely the strengths, needs, and challenges of parents and LGBTQQ youth than if we only had one or two of these groups. We were also able to identify what was most helpful for parents and youth during the coming out process. The steering committee then prioritized all of the information that they had gathered and condensed it into five goals, which were used to shape the program. Those goals are: 1. To address cultural differences between Americanized youths and their more      “traditional” parents, 2. To build healthier relationships between youth and their parents and within the      API LGBTQQ youth community, 3. To decrease shame which is experienced by youth and their parents and      perpetuated by individuals, families and the greater API community, 4. To end isolation that both youth and their parents experience when they feel      that there are no individuals or families who are like them, who understand      what they’re going through, or who can provide them with support or      guidance, and 5. To increase skills related to coming out, not only for youth, who must often face      this complex issue without the help of their parents, but also for their parents,      who have their own unique processes to go through and challenges to face. The steering committee also determined what activities would most effectively reach our target population and meet these goals. The youth steering committee members decided that we could best meet the needs of API LGBTQQ youth through the following: • Social events intended to bring them together in order to create networks and    build community in a safe setting. • A 3-day retreat providing an opportunity for API young people to begin to    identify and understand the issues that can arise between themselves and their    parents when their views on sexual identity, gender, communication and what is    socially acceptable begin to diverge. • The creation of a website with stories from parents and youth, information    and resources. The adult portion of the steering committee chose to address the needs of parents and families, through the following, which is aimed at the broader API community: • Connecting with non-LGBT API organizations in the Bay Area The vision of the API Family project is to develop loving, compassionate, and strong families with LGBTQQ youth in Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

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