Purpose of this Blog

The purpose of this Blog is to create a space to document our experiences at the Tết Canh Dần in Little Saigon, Westminster, CA this February 13, 2010. We also want to highlight our experiences that cut through the racism, anti-immigrant and homophobia that are sometimes yelled out by non-Vietnamese LGBTIQs or by straight Vietnamese.

This is the first time that the Viet LGBTIQ group is marching in Little Saigon Tết Parade. We have marched in San Jose since 2004, but this is the first time in epicenter of Vietnamese America. Prior to this experience Ô-Môi (the Vietnamese queer female network) and GVA (Gay Vietnamese Alliance) have marched in the Orange County Pride Parade. Some of us have also marched many times in the Los Angeles Pride Parade and Los Angeles Chinatown New Year Parade. To walk in Little Saigon as out Vietnamese LGBTIQ, however, is the first for all of us.

Led by our fearless leader, Chị Vương (Old Sister Vuong), and excellently coordinated by our coordinator Thanh Đỗ who is also our articulate Public Relations person, we registered with the City of Westminster to march in the parade as an LGBTIQ group. We sent out press releases to the Vietnamese news media on Sunday 2/7/2010. Some of us were called for interviews on Monday and Tuesday. Then Wednesday 2/10/2010, we heard that Westminster Councilman Andy Quách, who is also president of the Tết Parade committee, had sent a press release to the Vietnamese newspaper decrying our participation in the parade. The Vietnamese Interfaith Council led by Lutheran Pastor Trần Thanh Vân called for a press conference the next day (Thursday 2/11/2010 10:30 am) to denounce our participation and asked all religious organizations to pull out of the parade if we were to be there. In the background, Dina Nguyễn, Garden Grove Councilwoman and Andy Quách also called Thanh to ask that we withdraw our participation. We were angered by the narrow-mindedness and ignorance propagated by Little Saigon religious and political leaders. Even more determined to educate our community of the ignorance and misunderstanding of LGBTIQ Việt people, we set forth to march with great tension in the air. We rallied our friends and allies to come out and support us, and the most beautiful, last minute emailing, facebooking, and calling of friends and contacts happened. We must outnumber hate with a message of love.

Unclear whether we will encounter violent protest or a no show from our Vietnamese community, we met the night before the parade at The Center OC that Ginger Hahn had graciously offered to us, to create more positive signs of the new year spirit.

The day of the parade, the police sent four officers to keep a close eye on our contingent because they heard rumors that people were going to throw tomatoes at us. Our friends and allies came out in large number and helped us to a most peaceful, dignified march down the heart of Little Saigon. We heard more cheers than insults and it was most pleasing and heart warming to see our elders and vets waving at us and smiling. I have never been prouder to be Vietnamese and queer and to feel the connection and love from all of our friends and allies.