After more than two years of physical distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic many queer Asians feel that need to come together more urgently than ever before and are coming out in force. In Montreal, they gathered in July for the Lotus Festival, the city’s inaugural queer Asian art and culture celebration. In Toronto, they are running youth groups to help teenagers in the community go through the coming-out process. And, in Vancouver, they are having regular multi-generational Drag ’n’ Dim Sum events. Komodo, a Montreal-based burlesque and drag performer and co-organizer of Lotus, has spoken passionately and emotionally to the healing, validation, and support that events like Lotus bring to the community. Bringing people together after difficult years marked by violence, racism and illness was named as another motivation. Meanwhile, Toronto’s Asian Community AIDS Services and Vancouver’s Drag ’n’ Dim Sum events have been garnering increasing amounts of participants and interest.

This article is published in Xtra Magazine.