Calling all LGB Asian Americans

Hey all, Some friends/researchers at Western Michigan are looking for some students to participate in a study on self-identified LGB Asian Americans. See a copy of the email below for more details. Hopefully, you can help them find participants. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We are excited to be launching a new research project entitled: Negotiating the complexities of being self-identified as both Asian American and lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB). This project has two parts: (1) a web-based survey that will be distributed widely through listservs and Facebook sites like this one, and (2) about 10-12 open-ended telephone interviews about students’ experiences. We need your help finding as many participants as possible across the United States! Please forward this email to students who might be interested in participating in this study. The purpose of this study is to gather some preliminary, baseline data about the breadth of the community identified as Asian American and lesbian, gay or bisexual LGB), as well as some of your/their experiences in higher education. Right now, we are looking for currently enrolled students in higher education to complete a short web-based survey (about 10-12 minutes) about their identification as Asian American and LGB and their college experiences. Participants must be between the ages of 18-24 years old, enrolled in a degree-seeking program at any level in higher education (including grad school, and professional programs). While we understand that these terms (Asian American and LGB) are far from inclusive of all the complexities and preferred self-labeling that the community embraces, we are using these terms in an effort to cast a wide net to capture the broadest group of participants. The Human Subjects Institutional Review Board at Western Michigan University, the home institution of the primary and student investigators, Dr. Donna M. Talbot and Mr. Sean Pepin, has approved this study. The third researcher on this team is Dr. Wanda Viento, an administrator in student affairs at Boise State University. All three researchers identify with or consider themselves strong allies for the social groups identified in this study. If you are interested in participating in the survey portion of this study, please click on the link below. It will transport you to a Zoomerang (web-based) survey. At the end of this survey you will have an opportunity to choose whether or not to volunteer for the interview portion of the study. More details about the study are available in the introduction of the survey. Thank you. To begin the survey, click on the link below: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB228DCWHVQVY

Kenneth Yamaoka and Barack Obama

A few winters ago I was in San Diego and hanging out with some friends. One of my friends needed to go to a comic book store, and so I spent a little time wandering around and looking at toys and stuff. On one of the shelves was a few of the books for a 5-book manga series called Eagle: The Making of an Asian American President. I looked at it for a little bit, but didn’t make the purchase at the time. I went back to Ithaca and re-thought my decision, and started ordering the books from Barnes and Noble. I had read a little bit on the internet. The series was written by a Japanese national who clearly has an awareness of the American political proces and the politics of American culture. I got my books in no particular order…kinda whatever order they could be located in. I read them really quickly…I hate to read books, and while I realize that these are “picture books”, I was impressed that I could finish them in a few nights. I also kinda wanted to stay up to read. There was no “good” place to stop because I wanted to know what happened next. Like I said, I read these a few years ago. At the time, I was encouraging friends to read them and borrow the series. A few people took me up on the offer, and I was able to get them all back to make the trip back to San Diego with me. With the upcoming election and historic candidacy of Barack Obama, I was reminded of the series. I’m not sure, but I had kinda thought that the author of Eagle was supposing that an Asian American would be the first American president of color. His president, Kenneth Yamaoka, was an American former soldier who during his experience in war became determined to become president. And it all becomes convoluted from there. He marries a white woman from a wealthy and powerful family…and it seems strange that as the story unfolds every life-decision he makes is towards this goal. I doubt Barack Obama’s path was quite so intentional. But perhaps that’s better. It’s not that Kenneth Yamaoka didn’t come across as sincere, but it seems to me that perhaps Obama’s candidacy is more sincere and noble. Life decisions were made regarding his heart and perhaps independently from his career decisions. But it makes me wonder, from time to time, what all is going on behind the scenes. The kind of strength of character that a person has to have to stay true to themselves but gain favor of those with different levels of power who have their own interests in mind while being strategic is beyond my comprehension. And perhaps that’s what I found so amazing about Kenneth Yamaoka. In the world of fiction that the series was written, his desire to stick to his goals and noble ideas and make decisions strategically were fascinating. Anyhow…in the spirit of patriotism, I think people should read the series. If you’re in the San Diego area, you can borrow my copy. And remember to vote. Every one counts.