Five years ago, I moved to La Canada Flintridge, a small suburban town north of downtown Los Angeles. The city has a population of approximately twenty thousand residents comprised predominantly of Caucasians who consider themselves as upper-middle class. The tight-knit community boasts multi-generational family ties and a compelling interest in quality education for the children. As a newcomer, I was quite intimidated and always alone since I sat by myself during breaks and at lunch. I had no friends because everyone was affiliated with certain groups. One prevalent criterion of friendship was based on skin color. As a result, students with a similar appearance to mine find themselves unable to socialize since they do not belong. However, I started engaging with these students and realized they were willing to get to know me and become my friends.
I was very curious why such nice people did not have friends. Although they are different, it is not by race but by each of their identities. They identified themselves differently from how others did. I realized that people of varying race and identity are regarded as minorities in society. It was apparent that La Canada Flintridge lacked diversity especially regarding community representation and involvement. As the only Asian out of nine City Youth Council members, I decided to resolve this issue by encouraging more minorities to express themselves in the community. I recruited youths from diverse cultures to assist in the organization of events that would promote increased interaction between individuals from the majority community and those from the minorities. Furthermore, I organized a ‘color run’ as a strategy to raise awareness of the LGBTQ community in my city.
The first challenge I encountered was getting at least two-thirds of votes to pass my initiative. I knew that most City Youth Council members were conservative, but I still met with them individually on several occasions to publicize the LGBTQ community in our midst. Additionally, I also took the initiative of explaining why the LGBTQ community needs to be considered and also gave examples of other LGBTQ activities that are held by other cities. After a month of vigorous effort, I gathered enough votes that allowed me to proceed with my event. Nonetheless, my second challenge emerged immediately since I had to figure out how to ensure individuals participated in the event mainly non-members of the LGBTQ community. I realized that to be successful in conveying my message on LGBTQ people I had to ensure the event was not an LGBTQ exclusive event. Consequently, I invited LGBTQ members and their straight friends from the neighboring cities. With their involvement, I passed a message to the people in my community that it was okay to have LGBTQ members as friends. I also managed to show LGBTQ members in my town that they were not alone since they had members in the society who cared about them.
Ultimately, more than five hundred participants took part in the ‘color run.' Some of the profits accrued from selling tickets, T-shirts, and souvenirs were donated to the Los Angeles LGBT center. The rest were kept in the foundation to assist in the organization of various LGBTQ activities and events in the future. However, acceptance and appreciation for diversity within my community have significantly improved since then. We continued to partner with various organizations to become better in terms of building relationships that will advance the community in the society. Besides, my high school established the first LGBTQ club with these organizations support. Being a pioneer of this significant change in my town has been one of the proudest moments in my life.
