Like Haruki, I was a part of QACON10 this weekend. Here is a yummy photo of all of us that could make it in compromising poses.

(Photo credit Charlie Nguyen)

As a member of the planning committee, I attended each Monday night meeting when we were picked at, deliberated over and heat-beam-eye-blasted our theme for this year. After many, many weeks, we opened the oven door where our theme had been baking and out popped "Launch!" which seemed like the most natural progression in the sequence of our conferences. The theme of the first conference was Storying The Silence, Filling The Pages. The idea of the conference began as an attempt to give a voice to the queer and Asian population, an oftentimes marginalized community under both the queer and Asian identities. A year later, in 2009, QACON's theme was Articulation: Animating Our Collective Autobiography. Pushing for a sense of proto-activism through community building, it lay down the foundations for our conference this year, Launch.

To clip a bit from the conference welcome letter, Launch hoped to answer the question, "How do we take concrete actions to make our presence as a community seen, heard, and felt?"

One of the best qualities of the weekend, I thought, was that the conference stayed extraordinarily on-task. The rest of the planning committee worked exceptionally hard to ensure that each and every presentation attempted to answer this question: from the first night of performances, to our very own Margaret Rhee’s workshop on media representation, to Pauline Park’s inspiring keynote speech, and finally through the leadership caucus at the very end of it all, we realize that there are many ways in which we can launch. A great many of us are already moving on our own trajectories that can and will make a positive difference in the world.

For all of you that couldn’t be there, I leave you these 3 points on how each and every one of us can make a difference.

1. Know who you are. Know who defines you and what you are defined as.

Pay attention to how you feel about yourself. So many of us get caught up in what we are told about ourselves that there's never any room or time for us to decide what we truly are. Inside of each and every person is the ultimate sovereignty to construct the person you want to be.

Knowing who you are lets you understand how and why different people will see you as different things. This may sound patently obvious, but in many spaces, no matter how "normal" you may feel, others may label you as something else. Each box you are placed in is restricting, but is, at the same time, also meaningful. The ultimate challenges that each of us face are managing who and what we represent, and understanding to whom these images are matter.

2. Make friends

It doesn't matter who you make friends with. Just make friends. Understand that one of the most compelling forces that drives us is human connection. As a human being, living in a democratic country, we come to understand that without this human connection, people will judge and vote and alter the world we live in based on what they believe, not knowing what lives they could be changing. By being the person you are, and connecting with the world around you, you change people's minds.

3. Live an exceptional life

No matter what you do, be an incredible person. Be the person you want to be, live well, be strong and be intelligent. No matter what label we choose to identify as, each of us will face different problems, unique to our situations. By living fearlessly, we realize that, as each of these problems surface, each of us has a voice. By inspiring people to respect you for every aspect of who you are, you're that much closer to solving whatever life throws your way.


If all of this sounds straightforward, it's because it is. Every single one of us is an activist, with varying degrees of consciousness. QACON has, and will continue to, serve as a center for integration, helping people see that just by being the people they are, they play important roles in the communities they find themselves in.

May you all have excellent lives.