Diversionary Theatre in University Heights was packed Sunday with all the signs of a Thai, Lao and Cambodian, or TLC, New Year: colorful sarongs, the pageant princess, crispy rice salad and shots of Hennessy.
The DJ, “Bad Hunny,” calls herself “Qhmer” – Queer and Khmer.
Opening for the more traditional dance performances, like Ouay Phon Pi Mai and Jun Por, was a Thai drag queen.
“I just had a really difficult time growing up with (my father). Y’all know the first sons. I’m his first and only son and I ended up — this gorgeous,” she quipped to cheers.
Organizer Dina Johnson has been envisioning this safe space for years.
“This is actually, like, my dream,” she said. “Being a lesbian in this community, especially being Laotian, we don't get to be open.”
The Thai, Lao and Cambodian New Year celebrations started Saturday and run through April 16.
She and co-organizer Margaret Marshall said it was the first LGBTQ+ TLC New Year celebration they know of in the country.
“We were nervous, you know?” Marshall said. “Because we didn't know how this was going to be perceived in our community. But folks were like, ‘Yeah, we need this.’”
Even after tickets sold out, she said, more LGBTQ+ TLC people kept reaching out from as far north as Long Beach asking to come.
To her, it was a sign of how needed the space was.
“Being gay, being lesbian, I never heard that in my family. I have family who is gay, and I don't think we really recognized and gave that person space,” she said.
Marshall and Johnson see the celebration as an opportunity to reshape traditions they grew up with to be more inclusive.
“This is huge because it's easier for people just to come as they are and just celebrate the New Year without being judged,” Johnson said. “Because sometimes when you're in your own culture, you can't be yourself.”
She hopes this event will help change that for the younger generation.
They plan to make the event bigger next year.
