We hosted Taiwan Equals Love: Dim Sum and Documentary Screening this past summer on June 21st! The inspiration for this event came from it being AAPI Month in May, followed by Pride Month in June. I wanted to host an event themed around issues faced by 2SLGBTQIA+ people, while incorporating an intersectional lens, as I found that many of the resources we are provided in BC are constructed from a Eurocentric viewpoint. I thought that including another cultural perspective would help build cultural fluency in addition to shedding light on current issues faced by 2SLGBTQIA+ people around the world.
At this event, we screened the documentary Taiwan Equals Love, which focuses on the advocacy efforts leading to the legalization of same sex marriage in Taiwan in 2019, while offering a catered dim sum lunch. We were able to stream this documentary by purchasing a 1-month premium subscription to GagaOOLala, an Asian streaming service that shows queer media from around the world. To advertise our event, we reached out to on-campus organizations to share graphics on social media and put up posters in the UBC residence buildings.
We had 40 attendees, over 80% of whom were members of the UNA community, primarily UBC students and staff, and their friends. We received really positive feedback with many participants feeling that they learned something new and were excited to know there’s a streaming service for non-Western queer media, which also has a few documentaries and series available for free without a subscription.
