Welcome to the Asian Pacific Islander (API) community section. Here you will find resources to help you cover this specific community in a fair, accurate and inclusive way. These resources include reports, examples of balanced and unbalanced representations in the media and an essay on assumptions and attitudes that prevent the media from portraying the API lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in a fair and balanced manner.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender APIs are a minority within a minority. Although the media are covering the lives, stories and issues of LGBT people more frequently, they repeatedly leave API LGBT voices, perspectives and opinions out of the picture. Within the "mainstream" LGBT community, Asian Pacific Islanders can feel invisible since images in LGBT publications are primarily white. Furthermore, when LGBT APIs are represented in the media, they are presented in stereotypical ways: often exoticized as the "china doll," which reinforces stereotypes of Asian Pacific Islanders being silent, demure and sexual objects.

GLAAD's People of Color (POC) Media Program has been collaborating with LGBT API organizations nationwide to eliminate stereotypes and promote fair, accurate and inclusive representation of this community in all types of media. The program also provides media training sessions across the country to API LGBT activists to encourage them to advocate for inclusive representation in the media.

The program works with media professionals around the country to include API LGBT images in the media by suggesting and pitching story ideas to reporters and producers; providing referrals of spokespeople from this specific community; and offering relevant terminology and tips on how to cover this community. Some of these efforts have included working with several newspapers, including Asian Week, Filipinas, China Daily, Ming Pao, Shangai Daily, and several Internet news services, such as China Online and www.exoticizemyfist.com.

When the media resort to stereotypes in covering the API LGBT community, GLAAD brings their attention to the problematic or defamatory coverage and works with them to find solutions. The controversial 'Gay or Asian' article, published April 2004 in Details Magazine, is a prime example of this. After the feature ran in Details, GLAAD contacted the magazine's Editor-in-Chief Dan Peres, who acknowledged that running a discriminatory piece about both gay and Asian men was inappropriate. GLAAD then ran a public statement and mobilized the API LGBT community by urging them to send e-mails to the editor. The editors apologized - and ran GLAAD's statement in a subsequent issue.

In addition to this, several API LGBT community members and GLAAD met with Details' staff to discuss the article and offer story ideas. Details Magazine indicated they would move forward in a more sensitive manner, producing tangible results in the following six to eight months. Details ran a full-page apology in addition to publishing many letters from organizations and individuals that expressed concern with the 'Gay or Asian' feature. Peres said many of the stories suggested in the meeting might manifest in Details' "The Next Big Thing" feature in upcoming issues (e.g. profiles of LGBT / API artists and performers) as well as the "Power Issue," which will feature 'The 30 Most Powerful Men of the Year.' Lastly, Peres encouraged the API LGBT community to "call him out" if he does not follow through on his commitment to more sensitive, inclusive coverage. He also suggested a follow-up meeting to evaluate Details' coverage.

In addition to the POC Media Program, GLAAD's other media programs (Entertainment, National and Regional) consistently call attention to the lack of API LGBT images in mainstream media and promote their inclusion in every possible way.