Mark Clemente
For his last Kapihan, Mark Clemente facilitated the September Kapihan for Barangay Los Angeles. It was an evening with nearly all the seats occupied with familiar faces and a few new ones, despite the simultaneous event happening in Little Tokyo with Tuesday Night Café’s “LGBTQ Highlight Night” also sponsored by Barangay Los Angeles and various API organizations in Los Angeles.
The evening started out with several Barangay board members quickly going over the business of introductions and “safe space.” Interim president Rob Maullon explained the purpose and mission of Barangay LA, in lieu of current president Greg Pacificar, who was representing at Tuesday Night Café.
Clemente opened up the discussions first with the acknowledgement of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’s” first day of repeal. With a small round of positive acknowledgements on the subject, it ended with an attendee unexpectedly revealing his positive experience of seven years in the military.
According to thebody.com “Asian/Pacific Islanders(APIs) are one of the fastest-growing ethnic/racial populations in the United States” and with the number of API’s living with AIDS “yearly increase of more than 10 percent over the past five years” the question is, why are the numbers disproportionately increasing for a minority that only comprises of 4.2 percent of the U.S. population? Clemente posed the second question with a variety of responses ranging from cultural conditionings of shame to a generation’s personal responsibility.
Some attendees told stories of friends that had been positively diagnosed with AIDS and how those friends have helped them look at their own lives and made them evaluate their practices on being more safe. And some attendees, only now, safely practice sex because of “close calls” and “scares” albeit the room’s consensus about being educated about HIV/AIDS at very young ages. In addition to the group’s list of factors contributing to the lack of safe practice when it came to HIV/AIDS in the API community, like cultural barriers and denial, one attendee posed the question of “over saturation of education.” What do you think? Are we a community of too much education on HIV/AIDS?
After a healthy amount of time with the opening topics, the fishbowl questions deemed more casual and carefree topics to counter the severity but useful topics at the beginning of Kapihan (a list of the questions may be found at the end of this post).
At the end of Kapihan, Maullon presented Clemente with a mug signed by the Barangay LA board members and took some time to highlight the amazing work that Clemente had put into Kapihan to make it a successful monthly event for Barangay LA.
“It became a concrete part of my monthly routine,” says Clemente looking back on his year of Kapihan and the organization, “I had fun and I can already tell I’ll miss it.”
Barangay LA has Kapihan every 3rd Tuesday of every month at LA Rose Café, 4749 Fountain Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029 from 7-9PM.
For more information about VIBE, please click on the link below.:
http://www.apaitonline.org/services_programs_vibe.asp
Fishbowl questions for October Kapihan:
Is there a social situation where you would pretend to be straight?
Would you vote for Obama for this coming election year?
LAUSD, private or charter school. Where would you send your children?
What do you think about gay couples adopting children?
How would you discipline your kids?
What non-LGBTQI issue would/ could be important or useful for the LGBTQI to address?
What are you thankful for and why?
Fishbowl questions from the September Kapihan:
If you were to give someone a surprise gift over dinner what would
If the person that you love had a different religion/ beliefs would you go on with the relationship or end it? Why or why not?
Do you have a “one that got away?”
The best part of Los Angeles is?
The best part of this year for me has been?
