Other Committees
Outreach & Recruitment Committee
Our role is to recruit supporters and endorsers for API Equality-LA. We do this by performing outreach at various ethnic and community events such as the Lunar New Year Festival in the San Gabriel Valley, the Festival of Pilipino Arts and Culture in San Pedro, and the Thai New Year Festival in Hollywood. We reach out to new community leaders, organizations and celebrities to seek their endorsements and collaborate on educational and outreach activities. During the No on 8 campaign, we organized the API Equality-LA phone banks, reaching out to API voters all over LA. We also organize API Equality-LA's participation in parades and visibility actions, such as our contingent at the annual Los Angeles Chinatown Golden Dragon Lunar New Year Parade and the CSW Los Angeles Pride Parade.
Public Education Committee
Our role is to educate the API community on marriage equality and other connected LGBTQ issues. We do this by organizing speakers' bureau trainings and dispatching trained speakers to different speaking engagements, including conferences, panels and campus events. We have also trained volunteers in multiple languages, including Chinese and Thai. We organize events such as our volunteer orientations, town halls and volunteer appreciation events. We also create and update education materials such as brochures, flyers, toolkits, and factsheets as needed.
Media & Website Committee
Our role is to educate Asian ethnic and some mainstream media as well as the API community through newspapers, television, radio, and web-based media. We generate stories, op-ed pieces, and letters to the editor as well as identify API media spokespeople for the issue of marriage equality. We develop press releases and organize press conferences to educate the media about marriage equality issues and current events, especially as they pertain to the Asian and Pacific Islander communities. For example, we've held press conferences about Prop 8, inviting ethnic media to listen to various API community leaders, political leaders, and celebrities to talk about their experiences and urging voters to vote no on proposition 8. We've also held press conferences educating ethnic media about the breakdown of the API vote on Proposition 8. In terms of our web presence, we maintain API Equality-LA's website, facebook page, and twitter.
Faith Committee
Taking a multi-faith approach, our role is to engage the API faith community by developing contacts and supporters within various churches, congregations, temples and other worship spaces. We also organize events to educate the community about marriage equality. For example, we are planning outreach at various Buddhist temples, a service project with Evergreen Baptist Church in the San Gabriel Valley, and "Queerying the Bible," a training to explore the history of the "Good Book" and how it's been used as a weapon by some fundamentalist Christians to denounce same-gender relationships.
Fundraising Committee
Our role is to seek new funding sources for API Equality-LA activities through grant writing and organizing fundraising events such as house parties and Legendary Bingo nights at Hamburger Mary's, as well as maintaining API Equality-LA's budget.