Asian American families, youth to celebrate pride in LA’s Historic Filipinotown

28.06.2024 04:18

DailyNews.com

L.A. nonprofit Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), which provides resources and support for the Filipino American community, is hosting its first-ever Family Pride event this weekend.

The free celebration Saturday, June 29 includes workshops, youth activities, food and more for LGBTQ+ Asian American and Pacific Islander youth and their families.

The event, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., is at the new Lucena On Court affordable housing complex, where SIPA operates a well-being community center.

Members of the AAPI community participate in games and activities during SIPA’s Filipino Summer Program Family Day in 2023. (Photos courtesy of Search to Involve Pilipino Americans.)
Members of the AAPI community participate in games and activities during SIPA’s Filipino Summer Program Family Day in 2023. (Photos courtesy of Search to Involve Pilipino Americans.)
Members of the AAPI community participate in games and activities during SIPA’s Filipino Summer Program Family Day in 2023. (Photos courtesy of Search to Involve Pilipino Americans.)
Participants in SIPA’s Filipino Summer Program Family Day 2023 engage in a group activity outside. SIPA will be holding their Pride Family Day on June 29. (Photo courtesy of Search to Involve Pilipino Americans)

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SIPA, headquartered in L.A.’s Historic Filipinotown, is an LGBTQ+ and women-led nonprofit whose goal is to empower the Filipino American community through health, human and economic services, combined with arts and culture programming. Leaders hope to create a space “where people of all backgrounds come together,” according to its website.

The inaugural Family Pride on Saturday aims to create a space that brings the AAPI LGBTQ+ community together through activities and workshops, while also providing a resource for families to learn and connect, organizers said. Workshops will explore parenting and gender identity.

Vendors will include ProjectQ, the L.A. Public Library, the Frank D. Lanterman Regional Center and others.

Orange County-based Danilo Cortez, director of the non-profit organization Estuary Space, will give remarks about being an ally and the parent of a gay son.

Isabel Cuevas, a health and wellness coordinator with SIPA, said that SIPA wanted to host Family Pride Day to bring the AAPI LGBTQ+ community together and inform them of services.

According to a national 2022 report from The Trevor Project, 43% of Filipino American youth are not out about their sexual orientation to one or more of their parents. To try to help, SIPA’s first-ever Family Pride Day intends to be a place where families can be open and welcoming.

Cuevas said that particularly in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, LGBTQ+ pride “may come off as taboo,” so this event aims to educate families about allyship.

Saturday’s event begins at 11 a.m. Lucena On Court is located at 1919 W Court St. in Los Angeles.

For more information, visit www.sipacares.org.