Join us at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) for an insightful symposium focused on mental health within the AAPI LGBTQ+ community. The event will feature a panel of three mental health experts who will discuss key topics such as self-acceptance, relationships, and the unique challenges facing queer Asian Americans. Attendees are encouraged to bring their questions for the panelists. The symposium will be conducted primarily in English, with Mandarin language support available.
The event will also be live-streamed, and participants can submit questions in advance using the form linked below. This symposium is part of MOCA’s ongoing commitment to raising mental health awareness and fostering an inclusive space for AAPI LGBTQ+ voices.
Submit your questions in advance at https://forms.office.com/r/vWZLBbDheg
Can’t attend in person? Register for virtual participation at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7617292619017/WN_ZYmKIpjsRfWrEQeRvYE2sw
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
SHUNLING CHEN, Community Outreach Coordinator, Asian Psychiatry Program at Gracie Square Hospital
Hello, I am shunling. I am the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Asian Psychiatry Program at Gracie Square Hospital, affiliated with New York-Presbyterian, where she serves as the primary liaison between the hospital and community organizations disseminating mental health information. I completed my bachelor’s degree with a double major in Chinese and Psychology and my master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling at Hunter College. Now, I am practicing my clinical hours as a mental health counselor with a limited permit, and I look forward to collaborating with everyone in the future.
DON KAO, Activist / Social Worker
Don Kao, Asian gay man, parent of Amber (now 47), who he raised with his former lover since she was 2, a person living with AIDS (tested + in 1992, + for 30 years), who grew up with professional, immigrant parents in an overwhelmingly white, blue collar, working class community of 3,500 people in rural Maryland, was the Director of Project Reach, a youth and adult-run, multiracial, multi-gender, community-based counseling, advocacy, anti-discrimination and youth organizing training center in New York City. An anti-war activist and labor support organizer, Don’s work began over 45 years ago, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he founded one of the earliest Midwest Asian American student organizations, initiated unionizing efforts resulting in worker control at the Community Store, and worked against the war and for people of color communities – at the end of the Civil Rights movement and the height of the Anti-War, re-emerging Women’s and developing Lesbian and Gay movements.
LGBT Works:
1977 – Co-founder, Tri-Base Collective, NYC’s first Third World gay men’s organization including Native American, Latino, Black and Asian; 1979 – Attended the first Lesbian/Gay People of Color Conference and co-organized the first-ever Asian lesbian/gay contingent to march through DC’s Chinatown to the 1979 Lesbian/Gay March on Washington; 1989 – Co-founded GAPIMNY, Gay Asian and Pacific Islander Men of New York; 1990 – Planned first Gay Men of Color Retreat for gay male organizers; 1991 – Co-organized/co-negotiated for Heat Is On Coalition, multiracial, lesbian/gay and heterosexual coalition protesting use of the Broadway play, “Miss Saigon”, as a fundraiser by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and numerous other non-profit organizations; 1992 – Co-organizer/founder of +API, first support group for Asian and Pacific Islanders living with HIV/AIDS in NYC; 1994 – Board member of APICHA, Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS; 1995 – Founding board member of ALP, Audre Lorde Project, only center for LGBTSTI People of Color communities; 1995 – Board member, AVP, New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project; 1994-2005 – Co-coordinator/co-organizer, People of Color Organizing Institute, the largest annual, gathering of lesbian, gay, bisexual, Two Spirit, transgender, and intersex people of color communities and coordinator/architect of the conference-wide Anti-Racism Discussions institutionalized at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Creating Change Conferences; present board member, GRIOT Circle, an intergenerational community center addressing the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender elders of color.
JIHAN RYU, Psychiatrist, Hamilton-Madison House
Dr. Jihan Ryu is a Korean-American, board-certified psychiatrist based in New York City, currently serving at Hamilton-Madison House Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to improve community behavioral health in downtown NYC. As a psychiatrist in the CONNECT program, a pilot funded by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dr. Ryu focuses on providing accessible mental health services to underserved populations, particularly in the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) diaspora. In addition to his clinical work, he conducts innovative research in digital mental health, exploring new avenues of psychological intervention to impact population health at scale. A passionate advocate for mental health equity and the queer community, Dr. Ryu’s work bridges clinical practice, translational research, and community outreach. Learn more about his professional work at https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamjihan/
HENRY YUEN, Therapist in Training
I’m Henry, a queer, non-binary Chinese-New Zealander immigrant therapist in training at the Q’Lective. After a long career in the tech world building products from online classrooms to digital voice assistants, I switched into the world of mental health a few years ago to focus on helping queer communities of color navigate unique challenges and traumas. I work primarily with queer Asian clients and couples, navigating a wide variety of issues such as internalized inferiority, sexual racism and more than monogamy. I’m also an avid runner and triathlete, and enjoy bringing in the endurance and resilience of the human mind and body into my work. Learn more about my clinical practice at www.theqlective.com/team-library/henry-yuen.
