Fire Carriers: Queer AANHPI Icons Who Light the Way
They rise from histories both visible and buried, shaped by migration, memory, and the fire of becoming. Their work has shifted culture, challenged systems, and carved out space where there was none. This AANHPI Heritage Month, we honor ten queer Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander visionaries who have shaped culture with the precision of a knife and the tenderness of a prayer.
Kitty Tsui. Kristin Kish. Hayley Kiyoko. Lilly Singh. Helen Zia. Jenny Shimizu. Sonya Passi. Kim Coco Iwamoto. Margaret Cho.
These icons wielded the tools of diaspora— language, silence, shame, joy—and forged something radical. Through varied mediums: food, film, laughter, protest, policy, music, and love, they’ve challenged white supremacy, queered tradition, and refused erasure.
This is about more than representation. It’s about reclamation, about speaking with ancestral voices in rooms that sought to silence. It's the act of transforming bodies into archives and art into action.
Author, Poet, Athlete, & Activist
Born into the skin of yellow women, we are born into the arms of warriors.
KITTY TSUI
Kitty Tsui walked so the rest of us could stomp in steel-toed boots. Born in Hong Kong in 1952 and raised between continents, she came out as a lesbian and a writer at San Francisco State University during the protest-charged 1970s. “I’m not just a lesbian poet or an Asian American poet,” she said. “I’m an American poet.”
In 1983, she became the first out Chinese American lesbian to publish a book with Words of a Woman Who Breathes Fire, fusing tenderness with rebellion, eroticism with ancestral memory. Her later work—including the BDSM erotica collection Breathless—challenged ideas of race, gender, respectability, and desire. “I never felt masculine,” she said. “I just felt powerful.”
A founding member of the Asian Pacific Islander lesbian movement, a gold medalist at the Gay Games, and a leather scene legend, Tsui carved out space for queer Asian femmes in places that weren’t built for them. “Your body is power, your desire is sacred, and your voice is non-negotiable.”
“It is imperative for me to continue to speak out,” she once wrote. “To ensure that we Asian/Pacific lesbians be acknowledged as who we are… Women who survived being dead girls. Women who can turn the heritage of silence and oppression into strength, solidarity, and sunshine.”
Now in her seventies and living in Oakland, Kitty Tsui continues to write with fire and purpose. “I believe my activism is also my writing,” she said, “and always has been.”
Musician & Director
I’ve spent a lot of time and energy trying to prove my worth to people but have realized that if a situation in life is stopping you from moving forward or making you feel trapped, it’s okay to pivot in a new direction.
HAYLEY KIYOKO
Hayley Kiyoko didn’t wait for the industry to make space. She carved it out herself, sparkly eyeliner and all. With synth-pop bangers that hit like diary entries (What I Need, Girls Like Girls, Curious), she turned queer longing into anthems you can cry-dance to. Before it was profitable to be out, Hayley was already onstage, singing the things we all wanted to say in our group chats but didn’t.
A former Disney kid turned visionary artist, she’s built a world where sapphic love goes beyond lyrical subtext. It's song title material. Her fans crowned her “Lesbian Jesus,” and honestly? Not a lie was told.
CEO, Entrepreneur, & Activist
One in three women, one in two trans folks in the US is going to be subjected to gender violence in their lifetime. And the number one obstacle to safety for survivors is economic insecurity.
SONYA PASSI
Sonya Passi started her first business in childhood, a Disney-themed bookmark business at age five. Raised in Manchester, England, by entrepreneurial South Asian parents, she learned early that survival and creativity go hand in hand. That ethos now fuels her life’s work: dismantling gender-based violence through economic justice.
As the founder and CEO of FreeFrom, Passi leads a national effort to transform how we support survivors. What if survivors didn’t just escape violence, but built wealth? What if healing meant autonomy, not charity? From no-strings-attached cash grants and savings programs to survivor-run enterprises like Gifted, she’s creating long-term solutions rooted in independence and dignity. Her latest project, the documentary Survivor Made, flips the narrative, centering joy, resilience, and community over trauma.
Passi’s approach is unapologetically strategic. She’s lobbied Congress, launched a credit union for survivors, and pushed banks to address economic abuse. Her philosophy? Trust survivors. Invest in them. And build the world they deserve.
Model & Actress
We all get to this point where everyone starts feeling comfortable in their own skin. You can read it on people, you can feel it on people. And I think it has a lot to do with editing, taking away stuff, to really show the beauty, rather than just adding and adding. It’s definitely an inside job, and then we get to portray that on the outside as well.
JENNY SHIMIZU
Discovered as a mechanic, Jenny Shimizu cracked the fashion world wide open in the ’90s with a buzzcut, a leather jacket, and a presence that didn’t ask for permission. As the first Asian American model to walk for Calvin Klein and one of the earliest openly lesbian figures in high fashion, she redefined beauty on her own terms—gender-fluid, androgynous, and electric. In a sea of sameness, she was the glitch in the system and the moment the industry couldn’t ignore.
A blueprint for cool, a mirror for the misfits, and a forever icon, her very existence called bullshit on the industry's narrow lens.
But her impact goes far beyond the flashbulbs. Shimizu has spent decades advocating for queer rights, racial justice, and representation, using her platform to challenge stereotypes and open doors. From her work with LGBTQ+ youth to public conversations on identity and visibility, she’s never stopped showing up for the community, for the culture, and for what’s next.
Journalist, Organizer, & Activist
In a world fractured by turmoil, there's much to learn from the profound human experience shared by the uprooted and displaced.
HELEN ZIA
Helen Zia has spent her life on the front lines of change: writing, marching, testifying, and organizing with precision and purpose. A daughter of Chinese immigrants and a longtime Detroit resident, her activism spans movements: from Asian American civil rights to labor justice to LGBTQ+ liberation. Her reporting helped ignite national outrage over the 1982 hate crime murder of Vincent Chin, and her role in that landmark case changed how America talks about race, accountability, and solidarity.
Zia is the author of Asian American Dreams and Last Boat out of Shanghai, works that document migration, memory, and resistance with journalistic rigor and deep heart. She’s also been a key voice in building queer Asian American visibility long before it was legible to the mainstream.
Every word she writes and every room she enters reshapes the landscape. Not louder. Just truer.
Comedian, Host, Youtuber, Author, & Founder
Storytelling by nature is humans connecting with other humans. So if you take away what makes us human, that connection inevitably disappears.
LILLY SINGH
From YouTube legend to late-night trailblazer, Lilly Singh doesn’t just break ceilings—she dances on the shards. A bisexual baddie with a brain wired for satire and a heart rooted in justice, Lilly’s been rewriting the rules of entertainment (and gender norms) since before it was marketable. Whether she’s roasting the patriarchy on a soundstage or hyping queer joy in a TikTok spiral, she’s proof that you can be soft and spicy, silly and strategic.
And now? She’s building the infrastructure for the next wave. In 2025, Singh co-founded HYPHEN8 , the first-ever media network dedicated to South Asian YouTube creators. It’s not just a platform; it’s a power move. HYPHEN8 handles ad sales, monetization, and brand partnerships, giving creators the tools she once had to build from scratch. As Singh puts it: “Advice is great, but you know what’s even better? Me being able to say, ‘I’m going to bring you business.’”
Chef, Host, & Author
What really happened was that I fell in love. I didn’t want to hide it anymore and I felt confident enough to say I’m gay because I had someone there with me. I wanted to walk down the street and hold someone’s hand. I wanted to be in love just like everyone else is allowed to be in love.
KRISTIN KISH
Kristin Kish's presence simmers. The Top Chef winner turned host of Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend has redefined what leadership looks like in the kitchen: precise, creative, calm under fire, and deeply, unapologetically queer.
Born in South Korea and adopted into a white Midwestern family, she’s long lived between worlds—and turned that liminality into magic on the plate. Kristin goes beyond plating dishes, she curates presence. Every dish is a flex in restraint, balance, and quiet confidence. Her book Kristin Kish Cooking is part memoir, part manifesto for anyone finding their flavor in a world that demands a recipe.
"I think a lot of the nurture is in my personal life and a lot of the nature is in my professional life, because I can’t tell you why I’m good at certain things" she says. "I didn’t have to practice holding a knife. I didn’t practice putting together flavors. It just came to me.”
In a field dominated by straight white men and ego, she’s a whole new blueprint.
Politician & Advocate
My presence in a room makes sphincters tighten. In Hawai‘i, I’m such a known entity that people aren’t going to say anti-trans rhetoric in front of me.
KIM COCO IWAMOTO
Born in Kauaʻi and raised on Oʻahu, Kim Coco Iwamoto has dedicated her life to public service and advocacy. In 2006, she made history by becoming the first openly trans person elected to statewide office in the U.S., serving two terms on Hawaiʻi’s Board of Education. Her commitment to civil rights continued with her appointment to the Hawaiʻi Civil Rights Commission from 2012 to 2016.
In 2024, Iwamoto was elected to the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives for District 25, unseating the incumbent House Speaker. Her platform focuses on transparency, social equity, and community empowerment.
Beyond her legislative work, Iwamoto is a licensed attorney and has been recognized nationally for her advocacy, including being honored as a Champion of Change by President Barack Obama in 2013.
Her journey from fashion student to public servant exemplifies a steadfast commitment to justice and representation.
Comedian, Actor, Musician, Author, & Activist
The label of tasteful or tasteless is so often used to silence people and to maintain the status quo. It’s used to shame people for not following the commonly accepted routine. For not aligning themselves with the status quo.
MARGARET CHO
Margaret Cho is part auntie, part anarchist, and fully badass. She's been saying the quiet parts out loud for 30 years. A stand-up icon, she’s spent her career skewering racism, homophobia, body shame, and family dysfunction with the kind of honesty that makes you gasp, laugh, then cry on the phone with your therapist.
She broke ground (and censors) with All-American Girl, the first sitcom to star an Asian American family, and has since built a comedy empire that includes hit specials, Grammy noms, and an Emmy nod for playing Kim Jong-il on 30 Rock. No, really.
But the mic isn’t just for jokes. It’s for justice: Cho has been on the front lines of queer rights, anti-racist advocacy, and survivor solidarity, long before it was trending...or the word "trending" was even in the lexicon. Her comedy merges the personal with the political, because she knows the punchline lands harder when it’s true.