Interim Leadership

Christine  Choi (she/her) is a 2nd generation queer Korean American who initially  got involved in the KQT community after a series of happenstance events.  First, she attended a Creating Change conference where she stumbled  upon a workshop regarding an upcoming queer & trans pan-Asian  conference (NQAPIA). This was her first time hearing about this  conference but immediately knew she needed to attend! At the NQAPIA  national conference, she was surprised not only to see hundreds of queer  & trans Asians, but specifically overwhelmed (in the best way) to  be welcomed by queer & trans Koreans and allies from all across the  U.S. She hopes to help be a part of making KQT spaces and the feeling of  overwhelming welcoming more accessible for queer & trans Koreans  everywhere.

Sandy  Hong (he/they) is a 2nd gen Korean American person of Queer and  Transgender experience based in Queens, NYC. Sandy first came into KQT  organizing as a facilitator serving the core organizing team of KQTcon  2018. Sandy was also a presenter at KQTcon, moderating a conversation on  the intersections of spirituality and social justice, where topics such  as the Donghak Peasant Rebellion and Minjung Theology were discussed to  illuminate the roots and relevance of Koreans struggling and mobilizing  towards emancipation. Prior to serving in leadership with KQTx National  Network, Sandy served as the co-founder and director of New Women Space,  a community-based event space in Brooklyn, NY where 100% of programming  is created by and for women, transgender, gender non-conforming  individuals. Sandy believes in movement building as an ever-emergent  process of relationship-making, moving at the speed of our trust, our  well-being, and our connectedness to heart.

Mira  Kim (she/her) resides in Chicago, IL, and is a 2nd-generation Queer  Korean American trans woman. She is currently part of the core  leadership of Samcha Chicago, and became involved with the national  network after meeting other organizers at the NQAPIA conference in 2019.  Mira is deeply invested in creating spaces of radical welcome and  acceptance and spends her time to helping organize Queer and PoC  communities while while working in tech for a global PR firm.

John  is a queer 2nd-generation Korean American cis man who lives in Oakland,  California. For over 25 years, John has been an activist, advocate,  facilitator, and leader in communities and movements addressing LGBTQ  rights, racial justice, immigrant organizing, and HIV/AIDS/community  health. Beginning in the 1990s, he worked in HIV/AIDS prevention for  youth through peer education, activism, and direct action with ACT  UP/NY. He was a member of early Korean LGBTQ groups in New York in the  1990s and 2000s including Chingusai and Iban/Queer Koreans of New York.  In 2004, he co-founded the Dari Project which published the first  bilingual stories by Korean LGBTs and their families. He currently  serves in leadership of KQTx National Network which began with the 2018  KQTcon national conference which took place in New York City.  He has  served on multiple Boards of Directors, including The Audre Lorde  Project, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, and Grassroots Institute  for Fundraising Training (GIFT). Professionally, John co-leads an  innovation program focused on promoting financial inclusion for  low-income people in emerging markets for a global design firm.

Patrick  G. Lee (he/they) is a queer Korean American documentary filmmaker,  writer, and community organizer. He’s interested in building  collaborative, community-based approaches to filmmaking that reject  traditional hierarchies of authority and that equip queer and trans  people of color with media-making skills. Patrick has made films about  Asian American coming out stories, LGBTQ self-representation, and queer  Asian history. His writing has appeared in Mother Jones, The Nation,  ProPublica, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and more. In 2018,  Patrick helped organize KQTcon, the first national Korean queer and  trans conference in the US. His favorite snack is kongjang (soy-braised  black beans).