Vietnamese Activist Vuong Nguyen to be Honored by APIQWTC

Source: ASIANWEEK

Oakland, CA – Considered the heart of the Vietnamese LGBT community in San Jose, community activist Vuong Nguyen will be honored as the 2012 Phoenix Award Recipient at the APIQWTC (Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women & Transgender Community, pronounced “API-Cutsey”) Lunar New Year Banquet. The 25th annual banquet will be held at the Legendary Palace Restaurant, 708 Franklin Street in Oakland, CA on Saturday, April 21, 2012.
APIQWTC was formed in 1999 as a means of networking, communicating among the Bay Area Asian and Pacific Islander queer women’s and transgender organizations and constituencies. APIQWTC is the largest Asian lesbian/transgender organization on the west coast with over 600 members.

The annual banquet gathers approximately 400 APIQWTC members to celebrate and support one another. An exciting part of our annual banquet is the presentation of the very special Phoenix Award. This award is given to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women and Transgender Community.

Nguyen, was born in Hanoi, Vietnam but was forced by the communist regime to flee with her family to Saigon at age 12. In Saigon as a young college student Nguyen was hired by the US military to be a radio news writer and reader in the early stages of the Vietnam War. Her job was to establish communication with communist Hanoi to encourage disarmament and pilgrimage to the south.

After immigrating to the United States, Nguyen started Song That Radio, the first and only only Vietnamese gay and lesbian radio program in the nation, over 13 years ago. The Vietnamese language and culture has no word for homosexual or lesbian. It lends to derogatory terms or descriptions. Song That Radio is a forum to educate the heterosexual Vietnamese community on LGBT issues, HIV, AIDS, build communication, advocate visibility and acceptance of Vietnamese LGBT.

Song That reaches out to LGBT youth and adults who are closeted or not fluent in English and is broadcast in Vietnamese on station KSJX 1500 AM in San Jose every Sunday 7-8 p.m. and streamed online at www.songthat.com

WHAT: APIQWTC’s 25th Annual Lunar New Year Banquet includes community performances, silent auction, raffle drawings, scholarship awards, speed dating and the Phoenix Award Ceremony.

When: Saturday, April 21, 2012

Where: The Legendary Palace Restaurant, 708 Franklin St., Oakland CA

For more information see: www.apiqwtc.org or email banquet@apiqwtc.org