Pauline Park | |
|---|---|
 Park in 2016 | |
| Alma mater | University of Wisconsin–Madison, London School of Economics and Political Science, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Occupation | Transgender activist |
| Website | www |
Pauline Park (born 1960) is a transgender activist based in New York City.
Born in Korea, Park was adopted by European American parents and raised in the United States. As a child, she attended public schools in Milwaukee. She received a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, an M.Sc. in European studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Park was the first student from any University of Illinois campus to receive a Fulbright fellowship for France, which she was awarded to fund her dissertation research on the Maastricht Treaty on European Union; she was introduced to Sen. William Fulbright at the American embassy in Paris at a reception for academic year 1991-92 Fulbright recipients for France.
In 1997, Park co-founded Queens Pride House, a center for the LGBT communities of Queens, and Iban/Queer Koreans of New York. She was the founding first secretary of the board of directors of Queens Pride House and helped draft the organization's bylawys; she also supervised the board election in January 1999. Park served as coordinator of Iban/QKNY from 1997 to 1999, editing the organization's newsletter. In 1998, she co-founded the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), the first statewide transgender advocacy organization in New York; she sought and secured over $175,000 in funding for NYAGRA from foundations.
Park served as coordinator of the work group which led the campaign for the transgender rights law enacted by the New York City Council (Int. No. 24, enacted as Local Law 3 of 2002). [1] She served on the working group that helped to draft guidelines—adopted by the Commission on Human Rights in December 2004—for implementation of the new statute. [2]
Park negotiated inclusion of gender identity and expression in the Dignity For All Students Act (DASA), a safe schools bill enacted by the New York State Legislature in 2010, [3] and the first fully transgender-inclusive legislation introduced in that body. [4] She also served on the steering committee of the coalition that secured enactment of the Dignity in All Schools Act by the New York City Council in September 2004. In 2005, Park became the first openly transgender person chosen to be grand marshal of the New York City Pride March, the oldest and largest pride event in the United States.
In January 2012, Park participated in the first US LGBTQ delegation tour of Palestine.
In 2009, Park was named 'a leading advocate for transgender rights in New York' on Idealist in NYC's 'New York 40.' In December 2011, she was designated one of the 'official top 25 significant queer women of 2011' by Velvetpark. In October 2012, she was one of 54 individuals named to a list of 'The Most Influential LGBT Asian Icons' by the Huffington post. In November 2012, she was named to a list of '50 Transgender Icons' for Transgender Day of Remembrance 2012. [5]
She is the subject of Envisioning Justice: The Journey of a Transgendered Woman, a 32-minute documentary about her life and work by documentarian Larry Tung that premiered at the New York LGBT Film Festival (NewFest) in 2008. [6]
In 2010, Park recorded "Barricades Mystérieuses", which includes keyboard music by Couperin, Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, and Debussy. [7]
In June 2015, Park joined a group of Korean adoptees returning to Korea in search of information about their birth parents and relatives. [8] Park's trip, which also coincided with the Queer Korea Festival that preceded the Seoul Pride Parade of that year, was the subject of a biographical documentary short film, "Coming Full Circle: The Journey of a Transgendered Korean Adoptee," also directed by Tung.
On 28 June 2015, she was the keynote speaker at the Queer Korea Festival/Seoul Pride Parade, the largest event in the history of the LGBT community Korea up to that date, with a crowd estimated at more than 35,000.
On 6 July 2015, Park gave a presentation on the first US LGBTQ delegation tour of Palestine (which she was part of in 2012), at a meeting of Palestine Peace & Solidarity group in South Korea.
LGBTQ culture is a culture shared by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals. It is sometimes referred to as queer culture, while the term gay culture may be used to mean either "LGBT culture" or homosexual culture specifically.
Sylvia Rivera was an American gay liberation and transgender rights activist who was also a noted community worker in New York. Rivera, who identified as a drag queen for most of her life and later as a transgender person, participated in demonstrations with the Gay Liberation Front.
Over the course of its history, the LGBTQ community has adopted certain symbols for self-identification to demonstrate unity, pride, shared values, and allegiance to one another. These symbols communicate ideas, concepts, and identity both within their communities and to mainstream culture. The two symbols most recognized internationally are the pink triangle and the rainbow flag.
The Compton's Cafeteria riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The riot was a response to the violent and constant police harassment of trans people, particularly trans women, and drag queens. The incident was one of the first LGBTQ-related riots in United States history, preceding the more famous 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. It marked the beginning of transgender activism in San Francisco.
The NYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating the LGBTQ community in New York City. The largest pride parade and the largest pride event in the world, the NYC Pride March attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June, and carries spiritual and historical significance for the worldwide LGBTQIA+ community and its advocates. Entertainer Madonna stated in 2024, "Aside from my birthday, New York Pride is the most important day of the year." The route through Lower Manhattan traverses south on Fifth Avenue, through Greenwich Village, passing the Stonewall National Monument, site of the June 1969 riots that launched the modern movement for LGBTQ+ rights.
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New York state, a state in the northeastern United States, has one of the largest and the most prominent LGBTQ populations in the world. Brian Silverman, the author of Frommer's New York City from $90 a Day, wrote that New York City has "one of the world's largest, loudest, and most powerful" LGBT communities", and "Gay and lesbian culture is as much a part of New York's basic identity as yellow cabs, high-rises, and Broadway theatre". LGBT travel guide Queer in the World states, "The fabulosity of Gay New York is unrivaled on Earth, and queer culture seeps into every corner of its five boroughs". LGBT Americans in New York City constitute by significant margins the largest self-identifying lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities in the United States, and the 1969 Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village are widely considered to be the genesis of the modern gay rights movement.
LGBTQ history in the United States spans the contributions and struggles of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people, as well as the LGBTQ social movements they have built.
India has a long and ancient tradition of culture associated with the LGBTQ community, with many aspects that differ markedly from modern liberal western culture.
Susan O'Neal Stryker is an American professor, historian, author, filmmaker, and theorist whose work focuses on gender and human sexuality. She is a professor of Gender and Women's Studies, former director of the Institute for LGBT Studies, and founder of the Transgender Studies Initiative at the University of Arizona, and is currently on leave while holding an appointment as Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women's Leadership at Mills College. Stryker serves on the Advisory Council of METI and the Advisory Board of the Digital Transgender Archive. Stryker, who is a transgender woman, is the author of several books about LGBT history and culture. She is a leading scholar of transgender history.
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