GAPA Banquet 2022: Building Communities of Action

On Saturday, October 1st, GAPA held its 34th Anniversary Banquet, with over 220 attendees enjoying a 10-course feast served by the Peony Restaurant in the cavernous auditorium of the Oakland Asian Cultural Center – just the thing to bring our community together in celebration.

For those who could not attend, or simply want to relive the experience, photos from the evening can be found here, with thanks to our photographer Jimmy Quach. Also, feel free to check out the Banquet 2022 program book with detailed information on MC Michelle Meow, Keynote Speaker Rob Bonta, our amazing awardees, all the fantastic performers, our generous sponsors, and more.

This year’s theme, Building Communities of Action, called upon our communities to not only celebrate, but to organize for action in a year that saw the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade and threaten the privacy rights not only of women but of LGBTQ+ folks. Also, at a time when anti-API hate and violence seems rampant, our activism to bring communities together is more urgent than ever.

As one of the evening’s many highlights, our community of GAPA members, supporters, allies, and leaders met and heard Keynote Speaker Attorney General Rob Bonta, one of our preeminent API political leaders in California, give a fiery and inspirational speech that spoke on the state of our rights and liberties, and what we can all do moving forward.

Appropriately showcasing exemplars of those proactively taking action, we also honored the achievements of Queer & Trans API community members, including our well-deserved award recipients:

In a diverse and varied program further highlighting our community, we showcased our recently crowned Runway Mx. GAPA Royalty, Obsidienne Obsurd and Siam Pussie, who wowed us with their turns in the spotlight. We also celebrated with performances that included our fun and engaging emcee Michelle Meow, an opening chant from Jean Danao, the emotional vocal stylings of Brian Palac, crowd-pleasing energy and enthusiasm from GAPA Dance, rousing multilingual selections by GAPA Men’s Chorus, and a spectacular program finale from the always fabulous Rice Rockettes.

A special thank you to our evening’s special guests and presenters: State Senator Scott Wiener, San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, Oakland Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas, El Cerrito Mayor Gabe Quinto, Fremont Vice Mayor Teresa Keng, Dublin City Councilmember Shawn Kumagai, and Carl Chan, Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.

Special thank you also to lead sponsor Amazon and major sponsor PG&E, as well as all the other sponsors who provided support.

This Banquet highlights just a sliver of the beautiful work being done by extraordinary people for the good of our community, offering a sense of the commitment, pride, joy, richness, and sense of family that many of us are lucky to experience. The presence and support of all those who attended furthers our work and vision of a powerful queer and trans API community that is seen, heard, and celebrated.

Banquet 2022 was a wonderful experience as we connected and came together with a common vision. Kudos to Banquet Co-Chairs Justin Sha and Danny Wan, as well as our dedicated team of Banquet volunteers and coordinators. Next year is GAPA’s 35th Anniversary and we have already started talks and planning for a spectacular year ahead. We welcome any feedback you may have; please send them to info@gapa.org. Until then, stay tuned for details to come!

 

Dino Duazo