At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, people were dying at a fast clip and often alone. In Los Angeles, a group of queer Asian American activists came together to care for the sick and dying. To keep others from contracting HIV, especially those who are too closeted to seek help, they outreached to immigrant communities that were supposedly averse to discuss death and (gay) sex. In the midst of grief and anger, these young activists forged community campaigns that were joyful, creative, and sex-positive. In so doing, they created a new generation of defiant queer Asian American activists with a progressive, intersectional and multiracial lens. Their feats were even more remarkable against an increasingly conservative climate that tried to push LGBTQ+ people back into the shadows. Love Your Asian Body is a visual storytelling of the AIDS movement in the Asian American community. The stories of these activists once again find resonance in our struggles today.

Eric C. Wat is the author of Love Your Asian Body: AIDS Activism in Los Angeles (2022), which won the best book award in History from the Association of Asian American Studies in 2023. His Los Angeles Times-bestselling novel SWIM (2019) was described as “San Gabriel Valley's Bright Lights, Big City--an exploration of a man grappling with drug addiction, relationships and family drama in the heart of the Chinese American community in Southern California.” Storytelling is not only fundamental in his oral histories and creative writing, but also in his movement work through evaluation, facilitation, and coaching.

Co-sponsored by American Studies; Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; History; LGBT Studies; Public History Initiative; and Society for the Humanities