By tabling at a variety of community events, a new group focused on creating a space for Asian Transfem people has been putting its small but dedicated energy into finding others to network with. Asian Trans Sisters has a long-term vision to share resources, provide mutual aid, participate in advocacy, and build community. This year, its goal is to build a foundation and make itself visible.

The six-person crew started tabling at events two months ago, including the Gender Justice League's Trans Pride, Pride Asia, and the Wing Luke Museum's Jam Fest. Jill Kong, a primary organizer, says the next couple of months will focus on envisioning what members want the organization to look like and how to make it grow. The first peer group meeting will take place August 29.

"It's really small right now, and I think there's a lot of intentionality in finding community... We historically haven't had that much visibility," Kong said. "We may be small, but I think that's the point of it, to go from that invisibility to have more representation, to really have a space where we can grow."

Kong's preference is to co-imagine the next year alongside other members. She would like to form alliances with national groups and provide resources that aren't primarily in English.

"I think that for pan-Asian folks, we have a shared diaspora identity, but there's also a desire to connect that identity with the culture that we were rooted in, the cultures that we came from," Kong said. "I think it will be really powerful to have resources, to see how things can be talked about in your own language, not just in English."

The idea for Asian Trans Sisters was recent. After moving to the United States for college from China 10 years ago, Kong started her transitioning journey, and describes the experience as isolating. She wasn't able to find any communities that were intersectionally Asian, POC, and Trans, particularly Transfem. In recent years, she's realized she would have liked to see that kind of group.

"I wanted to create something that I know that I would have wanted 10 years ago," Kong said. "A small group of people who can [form] a specific, pure, intersectional peer group — it could be a really important space to find commonality and share things that might not resonate outside of those spaces."

She has the perfect background to create that kind of space. At her day job, Kong works as a healthy communities organizer at Global to Local, an organization based in South King County that serves immigrant communities, particularly around food justice. The search for partners for Asian Trans Sisters has been informed by her job, and she places value in networking.

"I'm really grateful that a lot of the bigger organizations I've talked to have been really kind," Kong said.

Networking and finding financial contributors, especially donors who want to help at a grassroots level, is the main type of support she says Asian Trans Sisters needs from the community. Finding people who have built small organizations like hers that she can learn from is also a priority of hers.

"The goal is to be able to seek fiscal sponsorship to support some of the programming activities we're looking to do and expand to later down the line," Kong said.

Asian Trans Sisters is still working on some form of digital visibility, whether that be a website or social media. Kong says the best way to get involved at the moment is by contacting her directly at [email protected]