ASIAN PRIDE BOAT 2023

Asian Pride Background:

Asian Pride has been a part of Pride Amsterdam since it’s inaugural year 2021 and will be celebrating its 3rd edition in 2023 during Queer Amsterdam and Pride Amsterdam July 22 - Aug 5th, 2023. Asian Pride highlights the Asian LGBTQ+ community and advocacy in the 2 weeklong Pride celebrations in Amsterdam with seminars, workshops, film screenings culminating with the Asian LGBTQ+ community boat during the world-famous Amsterdam Canal Parade. In 2023, our boat “RISING PHOENIX” won 2nd prize in the parade as was featured in numerous news and media outlets. This year Asian Pride has again been awarded a place in the Canal Parade and will set sail with “Pride of Asia” a 65-person boat with an Asian theme and Asian LGBTQ+ supporters on board along with a DJ, MC, entertainers and dancers.

Goal:

We are raising funds to be able to organize the Asian LGBTQ+ community boat for the 2023 Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade. Our GoFundMe goal is 12,000 EUR which will go toward the rental, decoration and entertainment for the boat and also our other Asian Pride events between July 22- August 5th, 2023 during Queer Amsterdam and Pride Amsterdam. Please donate whatever you can to help us achieve our goal.

Where and What?

Amsterdam Pride and Canal Parade is an excellent opportunity for the Asian LGBTQ+ community to stand out and be proud of our Asian heritage and showcase our proud queer Asian community here and in Asia. We want Asians voices and faces to be represented and included in the celebration of diversity during Amsterdam Pride which has a live attendance of 500,000 spectators who attend the event as well as over 3 million television audience.

Amsterdam Pride and Amsterdam Canal Parade is one of the oldest Pride celebrations in the world and the first country in the world to legalize same sex marriage and has been historically known as being at the forefront of progressing LGBTQ+ advocacy and activism for the past 40 years in Europe and the rest of the world.

Why? To promote Asian LGBTQ+ Visibility during Pride Amsterdam

"Pride of Asia" will be the only dedicated Canal Parade boat for the Asian LGBTQ communities and allies, an historically underrepresented BIPOC group within the Netherlands.

The boat acts as a physical and metaphoric platform to raise the visibility of Asian and Asian LGBTQ presence for a more inclusive and diverse representation of Dutch society during Pride and highlights the intersectional parts of being both queer and Asian, as queer Asians are often discriminated against within queer spaces and communities too. For instance, for years, the use of the phrase 'No Asians' (next to 'No blacks, no fats, no femmes') in profile bios was a blatant sign of racism on dating apps like Grindr, the hyper sexualization of Asian women has been a historically damaging phenomenon that amongst others resulted in the mass shooting of Asian women in Atlanta in 2020, and trans women of color are still the most vulnerable group with the highest murder, depression and suicide rates worldwide. We aim to be a platform for Queer Asians to be out and proud of who they are.