United Territories of Pacific Islanders Alliance Washington (UTOPIA Washington) has an distinctive logo: a striped, purple and white spiral seashell – “a shell that acts as an incubator space that protects, shelters, and is ever so ready to cultivate anew as it cycles through future generations,” according to UTOPIA’s website.
Founded in 2009 by Taffy Maene-Johnson, the organization works to empower and address the challenges facing the Queer and Trans Pacific Islander (QTPI) community in South King County. It is led by women identifying as transgender and/or Fa’afafine, a Samoan cultural term translated as “in the manner of a woman.”
UTOPIA’s work focuses on healthcare access, cultural empowerment, systems change, and food security. UTOPIA staff and volunteers engage in dozens of initiatives and projects, including offering citizenship help, support services for sex workers, food distribution, and a free clinic that offers gender-affirming care.
UTOPIA Washington will be recognized as this year’s Community Voice Award honorees for ‘Leadership in Community’ on Friday, September 27, 2024 at 6 PM at Ding Feng Restaurant at 6030 Martin Luther King Jr Way S.
UTOPIA founder Maene-Johnson spoke with the International Examiner about UTOPIA’s impetus, its intersectional and culturally-relevant approach to community work, and the future. The interview has been edited for length.
International Examiner: As the founder of UTOPIA, take us back to the beginning. What were the challenges you saw facing the Queer and Trans Pacific Islander community in South King County, and what led you to starting this organization serving them?
Taffy Maene-Johnson: It’s just like anyone’s story, moving here and being new to the area, and trying to navigate the system and the lay of the land, and trying to rebuild community.
I saw an influx of Queer and Trans Pacific Islanders migrating to the Pacific Northwest in search of better opportunities. A lot of the community were migrating here but were met with a lot of significant obstacles. From employment discrimination during that time, a lot of our Queer PI folks were faced with barriers to employment, and so a lot of them would resort to either warehouse labor work or fishing labor work where they’d get shipped out to Alaska to work in hard labor work, or they would do baggage claim work at the SeaTac Airport. And a lot of that is due to race and gender-based discrimination, and that often led to high rates of unemployment and underemployment.
The lack of stability, the lack of equitable job opportunities, pushed a lot of our community into precarious and low wage work, including sex work, where their rights were often violated and they had limited access to protections and benefits, and limited or no access to healthcare, and that was the other challenge too.
A lot of our community did not have access to culturally-competent healthcare. Many members of our community struggled to find medical services that respected their cultural identities, as indigenous Pasifika people, but also as trans individuals, also as queer people. So this lack of access exacerbated existing health disparities, which then led to poor overall health outcomes. A lot of the communities that we work with in the past and still currently would access healthcare through black market or online services, which would continue to impede their health and health disparities.
The other challenge was housing instability. Many of our communities found it really difficult to secure stable housing due to discrimination, but also economic instability, which further compounded their challenges.
And then, most importantly, there was a cultural disconnection. A lot of our QTPI individuals faced isolation from not only their cultural roots, but also their community support systems, which impacted their mental and emotional well being.
And so the combination of these challenges highlighted a crucial need for dedicated organizations or dedicated community space that could address those issues through a culturally-sensitive and intersectional approach. And this basically led me to where UTOPIA Washington is now. I envisioned an organization, or a support system, or a safe space that would not only provide immediate support but also advocate for systemic change to address the root causes of these inequities.
IE: As an organization, UTOPIA offers everything from citizenship help to harm reduction, to gender affirming care. How has UTOPIA evolved and changed to meet the needs of the community you serve?
TMJ: We have been able to build around four key components that address the diverse needs of our community, and those are cultural empowerment, systemic change, food security and healthcare access. We’re dedicated to building those pathways towards healing and transformation.
We’re able to offer health services, which includes gender affirming care, prevention, HIV STI testing, and care resources so that we’re able to promote mental health wellness through culturally appropriate support, emphasizing the importance of indigenous knowledge and practices, and healing.
We also have been doing a lot of work around our systems and policy and environmental and climate change work, recognizing that Pacific Islanders are among the most vulnerable populations to climate change, and so through that program, we work to empower individuals to continue to advocate for systemic change at local, state and national levels.
Through our Food Access Network, we’re able to provide community reliable access to nutritious and culturally appropriate food. We constantly are distributing food and providing educational nutrition and food sovereignty, including our hot meal services, where we’re able to provide hot meal services to our houseless community, our folks who are doing sex work, through our meals on heels program, where we’re able to go out and provide hot meals.
Cultural identity is at the heart of our mission. We strive to create those spaces where cultural heritage is honored and integrated into our work, and this cultural affirmation helps build a strong sense of identity and community amongst our community members.
IE: Could you talk about the ways that queer and transgender identities are seen and understood through the lenses of diverse Pacific Islander cultures?
TMJ: Many Pacific Islanders have historically recognized and respected diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. So I am a Samoan person. I am Fa’afafine. That’s my cultural identity, which is a term that translates to “in the manner of a woman.”
But this identity has long been a part of the cultural fabric, as Fa’afafine individuals, individuals assigned males at birth who embody feminine qualities and roles. Similar to Māhū in the Hawaiian culture, or Vakasalewalewa in the Fijian culture, or Leiti in the Tongan culture, or Takatāpui in the Maori culture. All of these gender identities hold a distinct role in their communities, and so in many Pacific Islander societies, these identities are integrated into cultural practices and social structures.
So Fa’afafine have been historically considered part of the extended family and often take on unique roles within a community, including caregiving, including cultural preservation, cultural knowledge, key holders of the culture.
And this cultural acceptance is often contrasted with the experiences of queer and trans individuals in the Western context, where such identities may be less recognized or even marginalized. Colonial laws and Western influences often introduce restrictive norms, which continue to clash with traditional understandings of gender and sexuality, and that has led to a complex interplay between traditional cultural values and modern social pressures, and sometimes that results in conflicts within community.
And so I think there’s still this social stigma and discrimination that Queer and Trans Pacific Islander often face in that context, where there may be pressure to conform to heteronormative standards or face exclusion from certain cultural or social spaces, and this can be compounded by factors such as racism and socioeconomic challenges and limited access to resources and support.
You know, a lot of our QTPIs frequently take on roles as leaders within our communities, working really hard to bridge gaps between traditional values and contemporary needs, and here at UTOPIA, that is very essential in the advocacy work that we’re doing.
IE: What does the future look like for UTOPIA?
TMJ: That’s a great question. I think looking ahead, UTOPIA holds an exciting possibility and opportunity for growth. A lot of that is expanding our programs and services.
This could involve increasing our geographic scope of our services to cover more areas, including additional communities within the Pacific Northwest and beyond. We’re looking to introduce new initiatives to our existing programs and how to better address those emerging needs.
In terms of our clinic in the future, we would like to approach even more comprehensive and culturally-competent care, and that includes advancement in mental health support and preventative care.
I want to be able to not only diversify our funding sources to ensure long term sustainability, but also exploring new revenue streams with the growth.
We will remain attentive to the evolving needs of our community, including addressing those issues related to climate change, related to economic disparities and social justice, and we need to continue to be guided by an intersectional approach that considers the diverse and overlapping identities within our community.
IE: What is the best way for people to support UTOPIA’s mission if they want to get involved?
TMJ: Thank you for that question. As we all know, financial donations are crucial for sustaining a nonprofit and also expanding our programs. And so contributions can support various aspects of our work, and that includes healthcare services, cultural programs, but also our advocacy efforts. If you’re part of a business or organization, consider providing grants or sponsorship to support our specific projects or initiatives.
Volunteer your time and skills to help with our events, help with our workshops. We’re always recruiting for doctors, MDs or nurse practitioners. These volunteers play a critical role in a day to day operation of our monthly clinic.
Share our stories, share our achievements and needs, and continue to support and advocate for policies that align with UTOPIA’s mission, patronize businesses that support UTOPIA or align with our values, and encourage others to do the same.
Donate goods and services that can support our programs, such as supplies for events, professional services or food donations for our Food Network Team. People who have professional skills or expertise, consider offering pro bono services to UTOPIA Washington.
Help build empathy and support. And, most importantly, and lastly, stay engaged, stay updated on our activities. Subscribe to our newsletter. Follow us. Provide feedback and suggestions to help us improve and adapt our services to better meet the needs of our community. And so by engaging in all of these activities, individuals will contribute to the success of UTOPIA Washington’s mission, and that will help create a more inclusive and equitable environment for our LGBTQIA+ community.
This year’s Community Voice Awards benefit dinner will be at Ding Feng Restaurant on Sept. 27, 2024 at 6 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online: givebutter.com/fkO6ZI
