Finding community can be a challenge for any group that represents a small part of the population, and that’s even more true for minorities within minorities. As gender and Asian American studies scholar Kong Pheng Pha writes, for LGBTQ Hmong Americans, the Twin Cities of Minnesota has been a place to join together.
Pha writes that Hmong history in Southeast Asia began in the early nineteenth century, when they migrated from China to escape mistreatment. During the Secret War that the United States conducted in Laos alongside the Vietnam War, the Hmong community was allied with America. When the US withdrew its troops from the region in 1975, leaving Laos in the hands of its communist enemies, many Hmong fled to Thailand and from there to other parts of the world.
Those who came to the US as refugees were often given no choice about where they would be sent. American policies scattered people from particular nationalities or ethnic groups across the country in an effort to encourage assimilation.
But, Pha writes, Minnesota had a unique situation. The Twin Cities area had numerous churches and nonprofit groups willing to sponsor Hmong refugees. Because of the strong community this created, and other factors such as the cities’ healthy economies and generally welcoming atmosphere, many Hmong families who had initially settled in other parts of the country also moved to the area.
For LGBTQ Hmong people, there was another reason the Twin Cities were a draw. Minneapolis has been home to active gay rights organizations since the 1960s, and in 1970 was the site of the first attempt by a gay couple, Jack Baker and Michael McConnell, to get a legally recognized marriage license.
In 2003, Phia Xiong and Xeng Lor founded Shades of Yellow (SOY) as a support group mainly made up of gay Hmong men in the Twin Cities. Pha writes that it eventually grew to include other LGBTQ people, and then to offer initiatives like community workshops, arts programs, and youth leadership training. It also held annual New Year celebrations featuring folk singing, poetry readings, a fashion show, and a pageant. And in 2012 and 2013, SOY united with other Asian American LGBTQ organizations to help push for measures that legalized same-sex marriage in the state.
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Even for Hmong immigrants outside the Twin Cities, SOY transformed conversations about LGBTQ topics when it was covered in outlets like the Hmong Times. This provided an opening for queer Hmong people to discuss their identities with their families and communities.
SOY closed down in 2017 under financial strain and various internal and external pressures. Its staff felt it had also struggled with being seen as the sole organization for queer Hmong communities. But, Pha writes, the gap this left in the community was also an opening that other organizations and individuals can inhabit.
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