Words by Chetanya Robinson
Pride Asia Fest returned to Hing Hay Park on May 26 for its 12 year anniversary, celebrating the diverse LGBTQ Asian and Pacific Islander communities with joyful performances and advocacy.
Co-founded in 2012 by drag performers and social activists Aleksa Manila, Gaysha Starr, and Arnaldo Inocentes (aka Arnaldo! Drag Chanteuse), the festival has shared drag, cultural performances, heartfelt speeches and calls to action with the public for 12 years. Pride Asia takes place near the end of May, at the end of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and near the start of Pride month. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, it went virtual.
This year as usual, Pride Asia kicked off with an opening ceremony from Northwest Kung Fu and Fitness. Performers swayed, rose and fell inside pink, purple, and lavender Chinese lion costumes to the clanging of cymbals and the beat of drums.
“Sharing of love and respect – that is the key to true peace in society,” said Master David Leong of Northwest Kung Fu and Fitness, which has participated in Pride Asia every year.
This year, Pride Asia’s keynote speaker was Dutchess Drew, a drag performer who brings Bollywood influence to her performances up and down the west coast.
Drew, who is soon to graduate from the University of Washington school of Law, spoke about the damaging rise in anti-trans and anti-queer narratives, and the importance of equity and accommodations for queer youth. Drew noted that schools, which have a duty to protect their students, are governed by school boards which are often swayed by external anti-queer interests. And transgender rights have a relatively short history in the American legal system, Drew said. This means everyday people can play a role in bringing progressive social change to local school boards, legislators and courts so that they will have no choice but to embrace queer acceptance in their decisions.
Next, drag performer and co-Emcee Gaysha Starr emerged to strike glamorous poses, passionately lip sync, and perform comedic crowd work with the event attendees at the park.
Drag performers Allie Mirage Paradisco, Jack of Spades, and Shima B. Valentine turned in heartfelt and colorful drag performances, with Valentine lip syncing to a song in Chinese.
Community organizations spoke or tabled during the event, including the Q Law Center at the University of Washington, the King County Public Health Pride Survey (aimed at improving HIV prevention and care), Lambert House, United Territories of Pacific Islanders Alliance Washington (UTOPIA Washington), PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), GenPride, and others.
Falefia Jr. Brandon Fuamatu, Development Director with UTOPIA Washington, said the organization is happy to have a presence at Pride Asia.
“While we want to celebrate and elevate all communities of color, especially those who are identifying as LGBTQIA+, it’s also important to lean on solidarity,” Fuamatu said. “There’s a lot of cross-culture and cross-history between Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans.”
Theodore Kenzo Dante Bickel is a Seattle-based photographer who has contributed to the International Examiner since 2024. He uses visual storytelling to showcase the vitality of the Chinatown-International District and contemporary Asian American communities in Seattle. He is Shin-Nikkei Japanese American. Born in Portland, Oregon, he grew up in the wilds of southwest Washington state. Theo, or “Tay-o” as his friends call him, found himself putting down roots in the C-ID shortly after arriving in Seattle in 2013. He has spent over a decade working in C-ID community non-profits in development, community engagement, civil rights advocacy, and communications. Theo was one of seven Seattle-based Asian American photographers that published the photography exhibit “Through the Eyes of a Tiger” in May 2023. The photo exhibit blended holistic, not homogenous, views of the C-ID in a critical time of regrowth and development.
