LGBT POV

This interview with Pastor Samuel Chu was conducted by Syd Peterson.

1. What’s your name and age?

Samuel Chu, 30s

2. Are you from California originally? If not, what lead you here?

I was born and raised in Hong Kong. It was still a British colony then, and I left my family at 12 years old to come to the United States because of political threats to my family for my father’s role in the democracy movement in communist China and the student-led protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

3. What kinds of grassroots political projects are you working on right now?

I lead California Faith for Equality, a grassroots network of more than 6000 clergy and lay leaders in congregations and faith-based organizations all across the state supporting LGBT equality and religious freedom.

I also co-chair one of the nation’s largest community organizing group called One LA-I.A.F. It is the Los Angeles affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation, the nation’s largest and oldest community organizing network. We were doing it before it was the sexy thing to do. I also serve as a pastor at Immanuel Presbyterian Church.

4. What was the one BIG emotional moment when you knew you had to get involved with this work?

In fifth grade back in Hong Kong, I “shut down” my elementary school and organized a “teach-in” and assembly to teach the students what was going on with the protests and hunger strike at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. My journey to the US also played a big part in how I see my work today: the experience of leaving behind everything I knew, everything that felt safe, and forging a new identity, new relationships and status taught me how important organizing is. And I remember feeling just angry – a kind of cold anger that I continue to find productive – around how powerless organizations and institutions like churches can be in the face of injustice and inequality. I find it unhelpful when communities come together without a serious intention of building some power. I remember the great organizer, Ernesto Cortes Jr. once told me, “Why spend the effort to organize people if you are going to lose? People can lose all on their own.”

5. Describe one or two of the most powerful experiences you’ve had as an activist.

Back in 2004, I co-chaired the founding convention of One LA-I.A.F. We had 12,000 delegates from our member institutions gathered at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It turned out that six years back, I had been in that same exact hall being sworn in with thousands of other “resident aliens” as citizens of the U.S. It was quite a contrast: when I became a “U.S. citizen”, I didn’t know anyone in that room. But in 2004, I looked out into the sea of people standing and cheering who are committed to changing their communities and improving their lives, like I am, and many of them were undocumented.

It was a startling contrast and made me realize what citizenship ought to look like.

I remember another time when police from the LAPD Rampart Division interrupted one of our Good Friday Processions in the neighborhood and arrested one of our community members. The moment we realized what was taking place, the 80 or so Immanuel members in the process calmly formed a line between the patrol cars and the front of the house where the woman was being taken into custody. This was back when Rampart Division was just starting to recover slowly from the scandals of the 90s. We negotiated calmly right then and there – not only to allow some of us to accompany our member down to the station but also we asked for a formal public apology to the whole community if it turned out to be a mistake. Well, it did. Two months later, we had an assembly with about 300 people in the community and the LAPD captain of the Rampart Division came, stood on stage and apologized. I am pretty sure that’s the first time anyone in the room had seen that happen.

6. If you could snap your fingers and change one thing for LGBT Californians, what would it be?

I know a lot of people are focused on marriage right now – and I would gladly snap my fingers and lift the ban on marriage right now. But if I could, I would want to guarantee that from this point forward, no LGBT persons will ever experience physical, emotional or spiritual violence against them because of their sexual orientation ever again.

7. Besides LGBT rights, what other issues are important to you?

I care about teaching people how to become public persons; communities how to find their power; organizations how to sustain long-term change. It sounds strange but I am not really focused on “issues” – I work on a variety of things because I think our lives are complex and interconnected. We deny our shared interests and mutual obligations to each other to our own peril, and the perils of our groups and movements.

8. Speaking from your heart, what do you want to let people know about why LGBT rights are so important?

Four of many reasons: 1. We are each created in the image of the divine and share in the same humanity, thus should be treated equally. 2. “A threat to justice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere.” 3. Simply, I love the LGBT people in my life deeply. 4. I am tired of religious and cultural values being manipulated into a force for harm and to strip away someone’s humanity.