June Chan

Chan was born on June 6, 1956, in Lower Manhattan to parents who worked in New York City's Chinatown.[1] Chan's mother was a refugee from China and the Japanese invasion of China.[2] Chan's activism had its roots in her childhood, remembering tourists displaying racist attitudes to people in Chinatown.[1] Chan attended the Bronx High School of Science and graduated in 1973.[1] She went on to earn her bachelor's degree in biology at the City College of New York in 1977.[1] Chan earned her master's degree in biology from the State University of Buffalo.[1] After graduate school, she came out to her family, which was a mostly positive experience.[1] Chan also works in research on neurobiology.[1]

Chan and Katherine Hall met in 1983 and began working on projects together. They created a slide show of Asian lesbians in history and literature which were shown in the 1980s.[3] Their Asian lesbian history slide show was considered "grassroots scholarship" by Polly Thistlethwaite.[4] The slide show gave lesbians "a larger context for ourselves as Asian and Pacific Islander peoples, as people of color in the United States, and as lesbians."[5]

Also in 1983, Chan and Hall formed the Asian Lesbians of the East Coast (ALOEC).[1] The group was formed in response to the overly white and male LGBT community at the time and provided a place for support for lesbians.[1] ALOEC conducted workshops and published newsletters.[5] ALOEC took part in the 1989 LGBT march on Washington, D.C., demanding civil rights.[2] During the process of organizing the march, Chan connected with other Asian-American lesbian groups.[2] These groups and ALOEC formed the Asian Pacific Lesbian Network (later called the Asian Pacific Bi-Sexual Lesbian Network).[2] In 1994, ALOEC participated in the 25th commemoration of the Stonewall riots.[2]

• Tyrkus, Michael (1997). Gay & Lesbian Biography. Detroit: St. James Press.

• Mariana combing June's Hair (picture)