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by John Won, co-chair of Gay Asian Pacific Islander Men of New York
In mid-March 2004, members of Gay Asian & Pacific Islander Men of New York (GAPIMNY) heard about Details' "Gay or Asian?" feature through our allies at GLAAD's People of Color Media Program who alerted us that this offensive piece would be running in Details' April magazine and invited us to work with them around this issue.
In the next few weeks, a version of the Details feature made its way all over the Internet, forwarded thousands of times, and posted on Websites. We witnessed overwhelming responses from many communities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and Asian Pacific Islander (API) communities, often reacting with shock, frustration, confusion, and anger. We heard and participated in many dialogues about why the images were problematic, what communities were affected and how, and - if the images in the Details feature were bad - then what images would be ideal to represent our diverse communities.
Our critique of "Gay or Asian?"
At GAPIMNY, we were outraged by Details Magazine's "Gay or Asian?" feature. In it, writer Whitney McNally revived a history of stereotypical images of LGBT API peoples and thinly veiled racism, homophobia, and classism as humor.
From denigrating working-class Asians - "One orders take-out sushi, the other delivers it" - to exoticizing Asian male bodies - "Ladyboy fingers," "sashimi-smooth chest" - McNally dehumanized people of color, hypersexualized gay men, and caricatured immigrants and the working class. The feature's captions combined stereotypes of Chinese and Japanese ethnic differences and drew sexual innuendoes, all in the name of selling high-priced consumer goods. And, when Ryan Seacrest was referred to as "that cool Americaaaaaaaan," it implied that API men are automatically not "American," a message which ignored the history of APIs in the U.S. and insulted all Americans of API ancestry.
The title "Gay or Asian?" itself suggested that you could be either "gay" or "Asian" but not both. This message perpetuated the invisibility of LGBT APIs who live at the intersections of race, sexuality, class, and nationality. We face homophobia in mainstream API and white communities as well as racism in white-dominated gay and mainstream communities. As LGBT APIs, we were proud to say we're both gay and Asian - and much more.
Our contributions to the Details organizing
In April, thousands of letters, calls, and emails flooded Details' office, sparked by GLAAD/POC Media Program's initial community alert. GAPIMNY talked to many LGBT API activists and groups in the Northeast who had attended the Queer Asian Pacific Legacy conference in March. Out of this came a joint "Open Letter from LGBT API Organizations" stating these groups' concerns and demands for reparation. Many API organizations also sent letters of protest, including Asian Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) and Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), as well as student groups such as Boston Asian Students Alliance (BASA) and National Asian American Student Conference (NASCon).
However, we began to see that many API individuals and groups framed the Details problem in terms of racism only. Many didn't go beyond a single-issue analysis to see the problem as one of multiple oppressions: racism and homophobia, classism, sexism, etc. In particular, we saw many straight API men respond to the feature with vehement homophobia and sexism, angered that Asian men were portrayed as effeminate and suggested as gay. McNally's feature had invoked "gay" and "Asian" to send negative messages about both groups. But what about folks who were both gay AND Asian? What messages were our own communities' reactions sending about what it means to be "gay" and "Asian"? Whether it was in McNally's feature or in the responses of the API community, were we any closer to knowing and making visible the real lives and struggles of LGBT APIs?
This was one of the reasons why GAPIMNY took a leadership role in the Details struggle. We quickly joined with Asian Media Watchdog and a coalition of local groups to stage a major protest. We worked hard to make the organizing safe and effective, from bringing many different LGBT and API concerns to the table, educating straight APIs about how homophobia and sexism function in our communities, and trying to make sure LGBT API voices and lives wouldn't get lost in the outcomes.
Hard-won outcomes
On Friday, April 16th, we capped off the massive campaign of letters, calls, and emails with some direct action at Details's doorstep. 200 people came to protest the racism and homophobia of Details '"Gay or Asian?" feature. Some took time off from work and some came from out of town like the API college groups who brought a bus from Boston packed with students - for many of them, their first protest. It became a focal point for the growing public attention from our communities, the media - including Asian-language press - and from Details itself.
The following week, we delivered our messages directly to Dan Peres, the editor-in-chief of Details, and Patrick McCarthy, the chairman of Fairchild Publications, in two meetings. GLAAD's POC Media Program planned the first meeting to promote positive and diverse representations of LGBT APIs, and the local coalition of API and LGBT API groups pushed for the second meeting to press home demands for reparation. GAPIMNY was able to attend both and ensure LGBT APIs were heard. One of our messages was: Details made a mistake with "Gay or Asian" - they need to make reparations by representing Gay and Asian... people, lives, and voices. Details told us that we can expect to see "tangible results" In the next six to eight months. GAPIMNY and our allies will be watching for these positive representations of LGBT APIs, as well as of LGBTs, APIs, and POCs.
Some in our communities say protests and activism don't achieve much, but we strongly disagree, and clearly our organizing against Details accomplished a lot. We were able to bring together straight APIs and Queer APIs in the same space, women, men, and transgender folks, and APIs, POCs, and white allies, throughout the organizing, at the April 16th protest, and in our meetings with Details. We broadened the messages and were encouraged when we heard our allies synthesize analyses that spoke racism and homophobia in the same breath, educating members of the media and our communities. What the Details incident gave us in the way of racism, homophobia, and divisive messages, GAPIMNY helped transform into a moment where our communities taught each other, built relationships across difference, and came together in love, healing, and collective action.
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