SAN FRANCISCO — Jess Delegencia came out as a gay man to his Baptist mother about six years ago, but she hasn’t actually said the word “gay” yet. It’s not as if she could have forgotten his sexual orientation either because, whenever she leaves her native Philippines to visit her son, she stays at the home he shares with his partner.
But during one such visit, Delegencia came home to discover that his mother had cooked dinner for all three of them. Furthermore, the dishes included two of his favorites and two of his partner’s favorites. This gesture alone showed Delegencia that his mother, despite her silence, was trying to communicate acceptance and warmth in a non-verbal way, a path that is often taken by people of Asian descent.
Delegencia, who is chief diversity officer of John F. Kennedy University, shared this anecdote last week during the annual, summer institute, “Expanding the Circle: Creating an Inclusive Environment in Higher Education for LGBTQ Students and Studies.”
The event drew educators from more than 40 colleges and universities nationally. It was held at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a stand-alone graduate school offering comparative and cross-cultural studies in philosophy, cultural anthropology, health and other disciplines.
A former evangelical minister for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Delegencia led a conference session last week examining the intersections—and historical lack thereof—among Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), Christianity and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
A survey of hundreds of U.S. churches with majority AAPI congregations revealed that “only about seven or eight described themselves as welcoming and affirming LGBT individuals,” Delegencia said. Interestingly, each of those LGBT-friendly churches is Japanese-American. He theorized that, because this ethnic subgroup suffered discrimination and oppression during World War II when tens of thousands of such groups were incarcerated in internment camps, they are perhaps less likely to marginalize other minorities, such as LGBT individuals.
Delegencia said that the shortage of openly LGBT, AAPI, Christian role models has motivated some families to participate in televised, public service announcements and other efforts to combat homophobia.
