KQTx National Steering Committee

tae min suh (they/) lives on Lenape, Canarse, Matinecock, and Wappinger lands (so-called Queens, NY). They're deeply interested in community safety/healing and liberation through anti-violence organizing and advocacy work within queer/tgnc communities, taekwondo & community self-defense trainings/teachings, and research on the medical industrial complex and its legacy of harm against Black, Indigenous, and people of the global majority. tae min has growing interests/practices in herbal & traditional corean medicine, dance, pungmul, and writing – and they’re always open to reading recs!

Siobahn Sung (she/her) is a 2nd generation queer Korean American born in Sacramento, refined by the Bay Area, and now a proud New Yorker of 11 years, living in the unceded Lenape land of Manahatta. A former opera singer, Siobahn continues to work within arts organizations to produce live events and digital content, serving as the co-founder of ffflypaper: an imagination company that seeks to create and uplift artistic and community-centered projects, focusing on BIPOC, youth, artistic and civil rights, LGBTQ+, and grassroots voices. She is currently a producer at Lincoln Center Performing Arts. Siobahn deeply loves storytelling in all forms, the word “hella,” and the Yankees.

P (she/her) is a 1.5 gen Korean American living in Minneapolis, MN. She is passionate about linguistic experimentation, identity formation, and racial justice.

Janghoon Yoon (He/Him) is a 1.5 gen Korean living in Durham, NC. He was born in Seoul, Korea, and he moved to the U.S. in 2002. He is a lab manager at Duke University, studying transplantation science, but he also has been serving as a VP for oSTEM chapter at Duke, fostering a community of LGBTQ+ scientists on campus. His community work extends to the Durham area where he facilitates Triangle Asian and Pacific Islander Queers (TAPIQ) and sometimes perform as a drag queen, Lil’ Dumpling, as a part of the House of Coxx. He finds drag as a platform on which he can explore self-expression, creativity, self-love, genderbending and more! He always craves Korean food, though he loves all kinds of food. He also loves coffee and boba (together or separate), evidenced by his nickname, “Boba Monster.”

Tate Benson (they/them) is a 2nd gen nonbinary biracial Korean individual living in Brooklyn, New York. They were born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Another part of their identity is being a youth worker (previously at GLSEN, The City of Saint Paul, and Youthprise) in which they have focused on building opportunities for queer and trans youth to be in community and organize. They consult for organizations on equity inclusion for trans and nonbinary youth and how adults can work in solidarity with young people. They’re currently work at COOP which is an organization for recent first generation college students to build intergenerational wealth. They are also a trained doula, drum with a Puungmul group, and read a lot of queer sci-fi in their spare time.

Sharon C (they/them) is a graduate student studying multiculturalism in mental health currently living in New England. They are passionate about healthcare equity, mental health, and health disparities.

Ouree Lee (she/they/any) is a second generation Korean American living on stolen Shawnee, Cherokee, Osage, and Chickasaw lands (Lexington, Kentucky.) Working primarily in film, she is also a multi-disciplinary artist, DJ, and astrologer. Her work and performances have been shown at the deYoung Museum, Gray Area SF, San Francisco Jewish Museum, Seattle Asian American Film Festival, DisOrient Asian American Film Festival, and more. This is her first year on the KQTx Steering Committee. Ouree is passionate about anti-capitalism and collective healing, emphasizing the need to radically shift material, biopolitical, economic, and spiritual forces toward generative processes and away from extraction and exploitation. In her spare time, she is doting on her beloved cat, watching movies, and going on long walks in the woods.

Dahn Bi Lee-Hong (they/them) is a non-binary, queer second generation Korean American artist and organizer. Born in Oakland, California, raised in Los Angeles,  in Boston, MA, they currently reside on Coast Salish and Duwamish land (Seattle, WA). In 2016, Dahn Bi co-founded ANGRY ASIAN GIRLS, a collective dedicated to community building and the sustainable empowerment of API young people through art and activism. Their work explores the intersections of racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and creative expression as vessels for communal liberation and has been featured at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Converse Headquarters, UMass Amherst, and the Boston Globe. Outside of KQTx, they work as a freelance translator, and are passionate about language as a space of dreaming and connection. Dahn Bi is passionate about the color blue, k-pop, cooking elaborate meals with their friends, and making bad art.

Talon (she/her) is currently serving her first year on the KQTx Steering Committee, where she is the lead for the Infrastructure and Development subcommittee.  She also facilitates the QTKAD affinity space.  As co-organizer for Sam-Cha Bay Area, Talon leads the KAD pillar, bringing together the diversity of the Korean diaspora.  As a transnational, transracial queer Korean adoptee (KAD), she is passionate about redefining home and family through language and food, and finds the courage to do so by challenging herself to be uncomfortable.  In her previous professional life, Talon was an accountant and property manager, who owned her own business and retired it in 2021.

Sandy Hong (he/they) is a 2nd gen Korean American person of Queer and Transgender experience based in the ancestral lands of the Duwamish/Coast Salish people (colonially known as Seattle, WA). Sandy first came into KQT organizing as a facilitator serving the core organizing team of the inaugural KQTcon in 2018. Sandy was also a presenter at KQTcon, moderating a conversation on the intersections of spirituality and social justice, where topics such as the Donghak Peasant Rebellion and Minjung Theology were discussed to illuminate the roots and relevance of Koreans struggling and mobilizing towards emancipation. Outside of serving in leadership with KQTx National Network, Sandy is a strategic consultant and facilitator working to transform fields, teams, and individuals through anti-oppression frameworks and liberatory spaces.

Mi Row (they/them) is a queer, genderqueer, 1.5 gen Korean American born in Seoul, raised in Cleveland suburbs, and currently residing on lands of the Council of Three Fires - the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa peoples. Mi believes in the power of individual connections and transformations to heal communities; they are currently pursuing an MSW to fulfill their dream of creating abundant mental health and wellness resources specifically for isolated QTPOC peoples in the midwest. Mi is a sports anime fiend, foodie, and crossword nerd; they like to spend most of their free time playing games with friends, reading manga, embroidering their newest project, or working on their spiritual practice.

Byul Chu (he/they) is a queer and trans second-generation Korean born in Illinois who currently resides on Munsee Lenape Land in Brooklyn, NY. They are a designer, textile artist, fermenter, and poet with a practice that centers frameworks of queer care, generational healing and the acknowledgment of post-apocalyptic life created by colonialism and racial capitalism. He is currently working on a series of large-scale collaborative poetry banners about mourning and seeding new futures with his dear friend and Korean chosen family Jo Kwon (they/them). In their free time, Byul enjoys watching psychological thriller/horror shows, reading science fiction or queer art theory, studying astrology and Korean herbalism!