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Meet Michael Trung Nguyen 阮忠誠. A gay attorney turned drag queen turned community organizer, Michael Trung Nguyen 阮忠誠, is running for the Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC) in San Francisco. The SF DCCC election is on March 5, 2024. Michael is running on the progressive slate, called the Labor and Working Families Slate.
Michael got his start as a community organizer and activist through the GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance (GAPA), an all volunteer organization working to build a powerful Queer and Transgender Asian and Pacific Islander (QTAPI) community in the Bay Area for over 35 years. Michael has a proven track record of delivering results for our community and is committed to making a positive difference in the lives of San Franciscans. This website is dedicated to keeping you informed about Michael's campaign and providing you with resources to get involved and support his candidacy. Stay tuned for updates and ways to get involved!
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About Me.
Watching G. W. Bush win the 2000 presidential election by one vote in the Supreme Court was my first introduction to politics. As the only child of Vietnamese refugees, I grew up without paying much attention to politics. My parents worked and sacrificed so much to give me a better future.
I left Texas after college to live in San Diego in 2003. There, I would march in my first Pride parade with the Gay Men's Chorus of San Diego. That gave me the courage to come out fully as a gay man.
I moved to San Francisco in 2006 as a transfer law student to UC College of the Law, San Francisco. I've been a lifelong renter, and I would not be able to live in San Francisco without rent control.
I decided to go to law school, inspired by the advocacy of so many in our LGBTQ+ community during the Marriage Equality fight. As a brand new attorney on Election night in 2008, seeing Obama make history as the nation’s first African American President gave me immense pride; however, seeing the returns come in on Prop 8 felt like a slap to the face.
I started organizing through the art of Drag, becoming Miss GAPA in 2016. My drag persona, Juicy Liu, was created out of community. I believe in the power of drag to transform individuals to recognize their own potential to create change. Through grassroots efforts to mobilize the Queer and Transgender Asian and Pacific Islander communities, I have stood up and spoken out against injustices, Anti-Asian violence, and built our collective power. I bring my decades of experience in nonprofit board governance, advocacy, and community organizing to the DCCC.
In March 2021, in response to the murders of massage parlor workers in Atlanta, I was the lead organizer of Castro to Chinatown: an LGBTQ+ March for Asian Lives. I was able to mobilize over a thousand protestors to march down Market Street to shout out loud, "Enough is Enough!"
I'm running for DCCC because I believe that every San Franciscan has a right to exist without fear of violence. I believe that public safety, however, is not achieved by more police, but rather when community comes together to keep us safe. That means making sure people have access to economic opportunity, including the vast wealth, jobs, and resources of San Francisco. I believe that San Francisco will be more safe when the community feels safe, and that starts with making sure our community has access to the resources they need to not only survive in SF, but thrive.
I'm also running for the San Francisco Democratic Party because I believe we need more people in our party's leadership who will listen and meet our community where they are. Too often in our politics, corporate interests funnel huge sums of money to push through agendas that don't work for everyday San Franciscans. As a community organizer and activist, I'm a champion for our most marginalized communities, especially for folks who don't think their voices matter.
As San Franciscans, we have a huge influence in the California Democratic Party as well as nationally. We should have a local Democratic Party that represents the most Progressive ideals of our politics. The country looks to San Francisco as a leader in progressive politics and what happens when those policies are enacted through government. However, our local party needs reasonable, level-headed community leaders that have experience in responding to constituents and delivering results. I'm proud to feature some of my accomplishments below.
Education & Experience
2006-2008
Juris Doctor
University of California College of the Law, San Francisco
After starting law school down in San Diego, I transferred to UC Law SF (then UC Hastings). I wrote on to Law review, had my student published, won a national writing competition for the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), and served as a judicial extern for United States District Court Judge Saundra B. Armstrong.
2016-2022
Miss GAPA 2016, Chair of Board
GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance (GAPA)
My platform as Miss GAPA was "Mind the GAPA" in 2016. I became chair of GAPA in January of 2017, revitalizing the organization through recruitment, expanded programming, and rebranding GAPA to be more inclusive (formerly the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance, GAPA now stands for the GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance).
2019-Present
Co-founder
Bay Area QTAPI Coalition
I organized and led an LGBTQ+ March for Asian Lives in response to the murders of Asian massage parlor workers in Atlanta in 2021. This was possible through the QTAPI Coalition that was formed through cultural celebrations in the QTAPI community. I firmly believe that racial injustice stems from a lack of education, a lack of visible representation, and a dehumanization of people based on race.
2021-Present
Co-founder
QTAPI Week
I have worked tirelessly to promote a positive Queer and Transgender Asian and Pacific islander identity, working in coalition with dozens of organizations to initiate innovative and substantive programming to help stop Asian hate. This has included leading and organizing drag variety showcases, panel discussions, passing resolutions at City Hall, and securing public funding for a block party in the Castro that has facilitated intergenerational knowledge transfer, building community through intentional outreach, and transformational change for QTAPI leaders and organizations involved.
Big Ideas are Needed
I love ideas. You can call me an “ideas” guy. I have been writing down ideas for the past 15 years as a Patent Attorney.
What I love about ideas is anyone can have them. An idea is a spark, and it can range in complexity— an idea can be as simple as “No Taxation without Representation” to something more complex like “Equal Justice Under Law.”
One day, in 2003, I decided to leave Texas and try out California. Without a job and without much direction, I thought, maybe it will all work out. I had a supportive divorced Mom who made the heartbreaking decision to flee her war torn country from the top of the US Embassy in Saigon in 1975. She was only 27 and came to the US with nothing but hope for a better future.
My mom met my dad at a refugee camp in Florida. My dad was ex-Airforce in the South Vietnamese military. He never spoke of the war, but he always loved American patriotism, freedom, and liberty. It’s an idea he fought for while flying helicopters in the war.
I was raised on the idea that if you work hard enough, anything is possible in America. I am the product of the American dream, my parents’ dream. And yet, we struggled paycheck to paycheck. We held onto a singular idea: a refugee’s hope for a brighter future.
My parents sacrificed so much so that I could attend good public schools in Texas. I chose to attend a small private liberal arts school because I had received a generous half-tuition scholarship and a music scholarship. A band nerd to the core, I double majored in music and computer science and worked my butt off to finish in four years.
After I came out to my parents in 2004, I was inspired to go to law school by Hillary Clinton and the Marriage Equality movement. I wanted to get a better understanding of how our society governs itself. Constitutional law was one of my favorite classes because the nature of our legal system found inalienable rights that were granted by a few words on parchment. A set of ideas backed by centuries of case law.
I started working at a prestigious law firm in Silicon Valley because I had taken on so much student debt. I also had the opportunity to be surrounded by incredibly smart inventors, entrepreneurs, and legal professionals. Yet, I always found time to give back to my community through nonprofit board service. Working with other volunteers, I have served on numerous local bar associations, community organizations serving LGBTQ and AAPI folks, and I have raised tens of thousands of dollars for causes and charities dear to my heart.
What I have learned from all this is that ideas are powerful things, but they need to be backed by action. Good ideas can be thrown around, but progress is only made through deliberate and intentional actions.
Our political leaders in SF, however, have the tendency to talk past each other and ignore good ideas that don’t fit their particular dogma or political ideology. The result? Sluggish response to our city’s problems. Lack of transparency in decision making. A complete lack of progress and accountability.
Well, I am hoping to change all that. We need empathetic people in our party’s leadership who will ask and demand answers to tough questions from our elected officials. We deserve full transparency on how decisions that affect everyday San Franciscans are made—and why they were made.
The biggest power that the SF Democratic Party wields is its endorsement power. Through endorsement interviews and questionnaires, we can hold our elected officials accountable to policies that serve all San Franciscans, not just the ultra-wealthy. We need common sense reforms on public safety, housing, and public access to education. We need Democratic Party leaders who will fight for the most progressive policies that affect the most marginalized in our society.
My opponents in this race have wealthy funders that have promised to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into this campaign, almost $1M for a campaign that, anywhere else, would cost around $10-20K. Insanity. I’m running a people powered campaign that refuses corporate PAC contributions.
I’m running on the idea that now is the time to stand up to well-funded interests that seek to make SF a playground for the ultra-rich.
I’m running on the idea that big structural changes to San Francisco are not only aspirational, but necessary for our continued growth and prosperity.
I’m running on the idea that small businesses, like the many startup clients I have advised, as well as non-tech entrepreneurs deserve a city where everyone can build generational wealth. Immigrant families, including my own, have built whole futures based on this idea, and I think SF deserves better than the doom loop narrative those on the right are peddling.
I’m running because I have the outrageous idea that a Gaysian drag queen like me should have a seat at the table of power. I hope to inspire others like me who have big dreams and outrageously fabulous visions for a SF that works for all of the Us’s out there who came to this city with nothing but a dream. A beautiful idea.
We live in one of the most innovative regions in the world. There are billionaires looking to employ right wing solutions to reshape SF to their liking. We need to stand up to those interests and hold the line on our progressive policies.
We also need to find ways to ensure that everyday San Franciscans can continue to afford to live here, have access to quality public education, and feel safe walking down the street. What I’ve learned through community organizing is that our community keeps us safe, and that we all have a responsibility to uplift our voices and make our ideas heard.
I also know that once we’ve learned to use our voices, we will inspire others to act. Thank you for joining me in this campaign. Let’s push forward, together!
-Michael