All About A-MEN

A bold new resource is giving Sydney’s Asian gay community its very own platform to exchange ideas, express opinion and share personal stories. Reg Domingo takes a look at A-MEN.

First, a declaration.

I was born in the Philippines but grew up in Australia. We migrated here in 1988 and I spent my early adolescent years in Townsville, Queensland. I moved to Sydney in the early 1990s where I have lived ever since. It was in this city where I came out.

So, on the inside, my Filipino heritage sits quite comfortably with my Western upbringing and as far as I’m concerned, I’m as Australian as they come. On the outside, however, you could say I’m ‘Filo’, while some might use the hyphenated term ‘Filipino-Australian’. But when push comes to shove, and you call a spade a spade, I am what I am and that’s Asian. And a proud one at that, too.   

So it was with interest and a dose of scepticism that I greeted ACON’s new resource A-MEN, a photo essay book targeting Sydney’s gay Asian community. I’ve seen such publications before in the past and, in those instances, didn’t make it past the first few pages. Many, I found, had spoken at me, not to me.

But where those magazines failed, A-MEN succeeds, for this is a publication that allows the community to tell its own story. Produced by ACON’s Asian Gay Men’s Project, A-MEN goes out of its way to present stories from the ground up, not the top down.

“It’s telling the stories as it is without needing to justify anything other than to say, ‘Come and hear my story,’ and that is a very powerful message that we’re putting out in the community,” says Min Fuh Teh, a project officer at ACON, and the driving force behind A-MEN. “For once, we want to meet you where you’re at, rather than say ‘you’re this’ or ‘you’re that’. We wanted to hear the community’s reality and represent them in their own voice.”

Seeds for the project were planted in late 2010. “It started off as a response to the lack of Asian representation in the media,” Teh says. “We saw a good opportunity to do something that is truly for the community, with community voices that goes beyond just selling a product. In working with that, I realised there was another opportunity in mobilising communities. So then, it wasn’t just about representation in the media but also about asking the community, ‘How do you want to be represented?’.”

The end result, Teh says, is “multi-layered and multi-levelled”. And indeed it is. From the deep and personal to the fun and light-hearted, A-MEN features a wide range of features and stories, covering a wide gamut of issues, a process that Teh says has allowed the community to “claim the space”.

Topics such as coming out, family structures, friendships, partnerships, religion and the scene are all covered, as well as sexual health and wellbeing, crafted and presented specifically for an Asian audience.

More than 60 writers, photographers, designers and performers are featured in A-MEN, including high profile identities like fashion designer Roderick Ng, singer/songwriter Dyan Tai, filmmaker Christopher Kam and photographer Simon Le.

Moreover, it is estimated that up to half of these people featured in the magazine are not out. “This is a really big leap of faith for them,” Teh says. “It is, in some ways, breaking that silence.”

Kevin, 36-year-old graphic designer, took part in the project as a way to tackle social issues. “I was involved with A-MEN primarily because it is a social justice issue,” Kevin says. “I wanted to challenge stereotypes and do my part in reducing racism and prejudice in our community.”

In the process, Kevin said A-MEN allowed him to connect with others in the broader Asian community. “With the A-MEN project, I felt like I have genuinely connected with other gay Asian men, and truly understood where everyone was coming from. We didn’t see each other as competition but rather another fellow gay Asian man who is undergoing the same struggles as everyone else. The project has brought a lot of Sydney gay Asian men together and has acted wonderfully as a ‘community building exercise’.”

And that, says ACON CEO Nic Parkhill, is what it’s all about. "Working with people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds is a key focus for ACON. For some people, culture and language can create barriers to maintaining good health and so our work in this area is vital to reducing the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmissible infections.

“This year marks the 20th anniversary of ACON's Asian Gay Men's Project and we're extremely proud of the difference the project has made in the lives of thousands of people in NSW over the last two decades. Our new A-MEN resource is a wonderful example of community members coming together and giving freely of their time and expertise to create an innovative resource that addresses a range of health and wellbeing issues affecting gay Asian men.”

[Pictured] As featured in A-MEN. Photos: Simon Le

A-Men will be launched at Unmask on Tuesday, February 28 (invitation only). For more information, go to www.facebook.com/amensydney.

ASIAN GAY MEN’S PROJECT: MARDI GRAS

The launch of A-MEN coincides with a series of ACON events exploring the social and cultural experience of Asian gay men.

QUEER THINKING: DO YOU SEE ME? BEHIND THE MASK OF THE ASIAN GAY MAN
A discussion forums which seeks to explore the conflicting worlds of being Asian and gay, posing the question: “Can sexual and cultural identities co-exist harmoniously?” Saturday, February 25, 2pm-3.30pm, Seymour Centre, Chippendale

MASQUE
Members of Sydney’s Filipino GLBT community and their friends will be treated to a thrilling evening of singing, dancing and performance. Saturday, Feb 25, 7:30pm, Petersham RSL, 7 Regent St, Petersham, $35

UNMASK
A photography exhibition exploring the diversity that exists in NSW’s Asian gay community. Also features the launch of the new photo essay book, A-MEN. Tuesday, February 28, 6:30pm, District 01, Darlinghurst

A-MEN PARADE FLOAT
Members of the GLBT Asian community are invited to join in the fun of the parade. Saturday, March 3, Hyde Park then Oxford Street.

For more information, go to www.acon.org.au