Queens Pride House to host a forum on Israel/Palestine on June 4

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more info., contact:
Pauline Park
President & acting executive director
(718) 424-4003 (h)
(718) 662-8893 (c)
(718) 429-5309 (QPH)
PPark@queenspridehouse.org
paulinepark@earthlink.net
Queens Pride House
76-11 37th Ave., Suite 206
Jackson Heights, NY 11372

New York, 8 May 2013 – On June 4, Queens Pride House will host its first-ever forum on Israel and Palestine, which will feature a panel discussion with Sarah Schulman, Nadia Awad and Pauline Park. A noted activist, Schulman is Distinguished Professor at the College of Staten Island (CSI) of the City University of New York (CUNY) and the author of seventeen books, including ten novels, five nonfiction books, and two plays; her most recent book is Israel/Palestine and the Queer International, published by Duke University Press in November 2012. Park, who led the campaign for the transgender rights law enacted by the New York City Council in 2002, was one of the delegates who participated in the first US LGBTQ delegation tour of Palestine in January 2012, which Schulman helped organize. Awad, a Palestinian American documentarian who filmed the tour, will be screening an excerpt from her documentary at the forum.

Schulman, Awad and Park will explain why Israel/Palestine is an issue for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and will discuss the work they do to challenge the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and blockade of the Gaza Strip. The forum is free and open to the public.

The forum is being co-sponsored by New York City Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (NYC QAIA), the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), and QUEEROCRACY.

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Queens Pride House to host forum with candidates for Queens borough president on May 23

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more info., contact:
Pauline Park
President & acting executive director
(718) 424-4003 (h)
(718) 662-8893 (c)
(718) 429-5309 (QPH)
PPark@queenspridehouse.org
paulinepark@earthlink.net
Queens Pride House
76-11 37th Ave., Suite 206
Jackson Heights, NY 11372

New York, 4 May 2013 – On May 23, Queens Pride House will host its first-ever forum with candidates for Queens borough president. The  six candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for borough president include State Senators Tony Avella and Jose Peralta, City Councilmembers Peter Vallone Jr. and Leroy Comrie, former Assembly and Councilmember Melinda Katz and former Deputy Borough President Barry Grodenchik; all six have confirmed for the forum, which is scheduled for 6:30-8 p.m. at Pride House in Jackson Heights. From 6:30-7:30 p.m., candidates will participate in a panel discussion, with opportunities for members of the audience as well as the media to pose questions to the six candidates. From 7:30-8 p.m., there will be opportunities for members of the audience to speak individually with candidates.

The forum is being co-sponsored by the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP), the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), and QUEEROCRACY.

Queens Pride House is the only lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community center in the borough. The forum is free and open to the public and members of the LGBT community are especially encouraged to attend and pose questions to the candidates for this important office. For more info., see:

http://www.queenspridehouse.org/wordpress/

Left to right: Pauline Park, Ivy Suriyopas, Lynly Egyes, Tauno Biltsted, So Yeon Kang

On May 1, Queens Pride House hosted its first forum on the issue of the human trafficking of Asian women in Queens.  The forum featured a panel of experts including So Yeon Kang, Project Free Manager at the New York Asian Women’s Center; Ivy O. Suriyopas, director of the anti-trafficking initiative at the Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund (AALDEF); Lynly Egyes, staff attorney at the Sex Workers’ Project of the Urban Justice Center; and Tauno Biltsted, intensive case manager at Safe Horizon.

The panel was moderated by Pauline Park, president of the board of directors and acting executive director of Queens Pride House. The forum was the debut event of the Popular Resistance and Non-Violent Action (PRANA) Project, which is funded by the North Star Fund and was co-sponsored by APICHA Community Health Center, the Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund (AALDEF), the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN), the New York Asian Women’s Center, the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), Safe Horizon and Sakhi for South Asian Women.

Queens Pride House is the only lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community center in the borough and the only LGBT community center in the state with an Asian American executive director; it is one of two in the country headed by an executive director of Asian descent. Queens Pride House was founded in 1997 and moved to its present location on 37th Ave. in 2006. Pride House serves over 6,000 clients and conducts health support, education and referral programs, youth training, and cultural and social programming. For more information:

http://www.queenspridehouse.org

Left to right: Pauline Park, Lynly Egyes, Tauno Biltsted, Ivy Suriyopas, So Yeon Kang