These are the 16 honorees of the 2026 Celebrating Bay Area AAPI LGBTQ+ Women Leaders & Allies, which will be presented by the San Francisco Bay Times at the SF LGBT Center on May 28, 2026.
Miki Adachi
“I am the granddaughter of Japanese immigrants, who started and ran a very successful florist and nursery in El Cerrito. During World War II, my father and most of his family lived in the Topaz relocation camp in Utah. The first and second Japanese generations worked so hard and never really retired. That allowed my generation to go to college, get a good job, and even buy a house.
I entered Cal Berkeley in 1970 as a physical education major, played 4 years of intercollegiate basketball and softball, all really before Title IX. I taught PE for a few years, but ended up in Silicon Valley as a materials and logistics supervisor. I eventually retired from Dell Technologies in 2021.
The highlight of coaching the Tom Girls softball team was winning the Women’s Class C Championship in 1989! We also played in the ASA Nationals in Mississippi.
My greatest achievement, though, is my son Michael, who is a flight attendant for Alaska Airlines and is a gentleman who enjoys life and makes me proud.”
Rajasvini Bhansali
Rajasvini “Vini” Bhansali is the Executive Director of Solidaire Network and Solidaire Action. She is a passionate advocate for participatory grassroots-led power building and a lifelong student of social movements. In a wide-ranging career devoted to racial, economic, and climate justice, she has previously led an international public foundation that funds grassroots organizing in Asia, Africa, and Latin America; grown a national youth development social enterprise; managed a public telecommunications infrastructure fund addressing the digital divide in the Southern United States; and worked as a community organizer, researcher, planner, policy analyst, and strategy consultant.
Born and raised in India, Bhansali earned a Master’s in Public Affairs with a focus on addressing the Rural Digital Divide from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor’s in both Astrophysics and Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities & Social Sciences from UC Berkeley. Bhansali also spent several years working in rural Kenya with community leaders, an experience she credits as having inspired her to work to transform philanthropy and international development to be accountable to communities. She co-authored Leading with Joy: Practices for Uncertain Times, and is a published poet, essayist, popular educator, yoga instructor, and leadership coach. When not engaged with community organizations, Bhansali can be found nesting with her family, taking long naps in the garden, or plotting the next dance party with friends.
Mel Y. Chen
Mel Y. Chen (they/them/ta+) is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where they support imaginative combinations of scholarship, art, and activism, and have the privilege of working with unstoppable, visionary students. Chen is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP), which since 2001 has informed their approach to arts activism and community building.
Chen is a recognized scholar of queer, trans, Asian American and disability studies, and is the author of two books: Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer Affect (2012), and Intoxicated: Race, Disability, and Chemical Intimacies of Empire (2023). Their newest project, begun in a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, reaches for wider audiences and contains drawings, music, and essays that explore connections between the environment, migration, transgender and animal being, race, and music/sound.
Margaret Cho
Comedian, actor, musician, advocate, entrepreneur, and artist are just a few of the adjectives that describe Margaret Cho—a jack of all trades and master of many. Born and raised in San Francisco, Cho started her career at age 14. After winning a comedy contest to open for Jerry Seinfeld in the 1990s, she moved to Los Angeles, hit the college circuit, and became the most booked act in the market. She performed over 300 concerts within two years. Arsenio Hall introduced her to late night audiences, Bob Hope put her on a primetime special, and, seemingly overnight, Margaret Cho became a household name. She has since gone on to television, film, Broadway, and music acclaim. Recently, she released a new single and video with former Go Go’s performer Jane Wiedlin, with the video showcasing an array of comedy and drag superstars. She was nominated for an Emmy and has received additional honors including from Lambda Legal, GLAAD, and other LGBTQ+ organizations. April 30, 2008, was declared Margaret Cho Day in San Francisco. Currently she is on the Choligarchy tour, performing for audiences in sold-out venues across the U.S.
Alice Y. Hom
Alice Y. Hom (she/they) is a community builder invested in bridging diverse and overlapping communities for social change. She is the Executive Director of CHANGE Philanthropy and serves on the board of the American LGBTQ+ Museum and on the Advisory Council for the Conscious Style Guide. She is a Co-Founder of Beyond Two Cents: LGBTQ AAPI Giving Circle. Her previous board service includes: Borealis Philanthropy, California Humanities, Los Angeles City Commission on the Status of Women, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, Visual Communications, Great Leap, and APAIT Health Center.
She holds a Ph.D. in History from Claremont Graduate University, an M.A. in Asian American Studies from UCLA, and a B.A. from Yale University. Hom is a Co-Editor of two anthologies: Q & A: Voices from Queer Asian North America and Q & A: Queer in Asian America and has published articles in various journals and anthologies.
Manisha Israni-Jiang, M.D.
Dr. Manisha Israni-Jiang is a dual boarded hospitalist and Health Sciences Clinical Professor at UCSF, where she serves as Director of Hospital Capacity and Throughput for the Benioff Children’s Hospitals.
For over 15 years, she has cared for hospitalized patients of all ages, and, during the pandemic, she led UCSF’s Respiratory Screening Clinic to ensure safe access to care for pediatric and adult cancer patients. Her work bridges pediatrics and internal medicine, focusing on care transitions, operational equity, and compassionate, patient-centered systems. A proud immigrant, lesbian, and mother, she leads with inclusion, presence, and purpose across every facet of care and leadership.
Cj Jiang
Cj Jiang is a Lieutenant with the San Francisco Fire Department and a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ communities. She previously served as Co-Coordinator of the Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women and Transgender Coalition (APIQWTC), where she helped build community and amplify underrepresented voices.
She was actively involved in the fight for marriage equality, earning recognition from the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance, including receiving their Community Award. Her greatest achievement is being a parent to her two children.
Jane Kim
Jane Kim is a civil rights attorney, consumer advocate, and candidate for California Insurance Commissioner. Prior to her candidacy, Kim served as the California Director of the Working Families Party and California Political Director for Bernie Sanders. She served four years on the San Francisco Board of Education, where she led the charge to bring LGBTQ+ studies and gender-neutral bathrooms to public schools.
Over two terms representing District 6 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Kim led initiatives to make City College tuition free and expand affordable childcare, raised the minimum wage, and negotiated record levels of affordable housing. Kim wrote and passed the laws to create the Transgender District and Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District, helped create San Francisco’s first LGBTQ+ homeless shelter, renamed streets after LGBTQ+ pioneers, and worked with community to protect the Eagle, the Lonestar, the Stud, and Oasis.
Audrey Koh, M.D.
Audrey Koh is an obstetrician-gynecologist and health and civil rights activist. In her 40+ years of practice, she guided scores of LGBT people to produce pregnancies and deliver their infants. She has been named among America’s Top Doctors annually since 2003.
As an Associate Clinical Professor, she has helped train UCSF medical students and residents, including on reproductive rights and culturally sensitive treatment of people of all sexual behaviors and gender identities. She has published widely in the medical literature including on: gynecologic care for lesbians; and demonstrating the psychological and social well-being of offspring conceived in lesbian-parent families (followed since infancy to adulthood), thereby debunking the conservative position that only heterosexuals are qualified as parents. She has served on the boards of Lyon-Martin Women’s Health Services, Gay & Lesbian Medical Association, and as Co-Chair of the Boards of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (now the National Center for LGBTQ Rights) and Horizons Foundation.
Jen Masuda
Jen Masuda has dedicated 15 years to Yu-Ai Kai Japantown Community Senior Center and currently serves as Executive Director. She has helped strengthen the organization’s marketing, programming, policy development, and operations, contributing to increased participation, improved efficiency, and revenue growth. As someone new to the LGBTQ+ community, Masuda is committed to fostering inclusive spaces that promote connection, understanding, and belonging.
Before joining Yu-Ai Kai, Masuda co-founded Rain or Shine Communications, a content-driven web company later acquired by Formation Media, where she served as Sales Director. Earlier in her career, she held roles as Associate Publisher and Group Sales Manager at Source Interlink Media in Anaheim, California, along with various sales and marketing positions in the mobile electronics and automotive enthusiast industries. Her professional experiences have taken her across New England, Southern California, and Japan.
Ruth McFarlane
Ruth McFarlane is deeply committed to feminist movements, collective power building, and lifting up BIPOC and queer communities. Her leadership and fundraising prowess has supported growth at multiple organizations working on intersectional social justice. An attorney and social worker, McFarlane practiced at a firm in New York City before moving to the Bay Area.
McFarlane ran a Larkin Street program for HIV-positive youth in the Tenderloin before serving as the Director of Programs at the SF LGBT Community Center. At the Center, she produced the last Pink Party in the Castro for a crowd of over 70,000. She was part of the Bay Area team that launched The PRIDE Study, which was the first community-powered, longitudinal study of LGBTQ health in the United States. She also served as a Board Member and then as Director of Development and Community Outreach at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (now the National Center for LGBTQ Rights). She is currently Deputy CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women.
Michelle Meow
Michelle Meow is the host and producer of The Michelle Meow Show. The program’s tag line is: “Your A–Z, covering the LGBT, LMNOP, and everyone in between.” Her mission is constructing opportunities for people to listen in to deep conversations and to develop understanding and empathy. Her program can be heard through the Commonwealth Club World Affairs of CA, which at times is aired on KQED. In addition to her own program, Meow produces multiple other programs at the iconic Commonwealth Club World Affairs, where she is a Member of the Board of Governors. There she is dedicated to generating conversations around social justice with an intersectional lens.
She served as a Co-Host of the San Francisco Pride Parade broadcast from 2006–2018 and she has also served as the President of the Pride organization’s Board of Directors from 2014–2018. In 2020, she produced Global Pride with the Commonwealth Club World Affairs, YouTube, and InterPride, the first ever virtual global live event focused on the LGBTQIA+ community. From 2022–2025, she supported efforts in Asia to amplify LGBTQIA+ rights through activism and advocacy in Thailand, a country that has just passed marriage equality.
Priti Narayanan
Priti Narayanan is the co-founder of Koolfi Creamery, a Bay Area craft ice cream company with stores in San Leandro and San Francisco and pints carried in specialty stores across the region. Founded with her wife Mads in 2018, Koolfi is known for bold Indian-inspired flavors and a strong sense of community.
Both wives have been active in the queer rights movement for over two decades. Narayanan worked on political campaigns supporting marriage equality and served as Co-Chair of Trikone, a Bay Area South Asian LGBTQ organization. Koolfi proudly embraces queer visibility, including prominently displaying the owners’ wedding photo to introduce many Indian families visiting the stores to a joyful, positive example of queer love and family.
Hon. Donna Ryu
Donna Ryu is the second openly LGBTQ+ judge to serve on the federal judiciary, retiring as Chief Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Prior to that, she co-founded an all-women’s civil rights firm, then became a Clinical Law Professor, providing assistance to underserved communities and teaching students to give excellent legal representation.
She created a seminar on APAs and the Law, and enjoyed advising APA and LGBTQ+ student organizations. She litigated cases challenging systemic racial harassment against Black steel workers, protecting Latina farmworkers from sexual harassment, confronting the glass ceiling for women, and advocating for Asian garment workers. While co-chairing the National Center for Lesbian Rights (now the National Center for LGBTQ Rights) board, she authored a brief on behalf of law school deans and professors in the Proposition 8 case in which she linked protection of LGBTQ+ rights to the California Supreme Court’s historic role in eliminating bias against minorities and women.
Lynn T. Sugihara
Lynn T. Sugihara is a Founding Board Member of Richmond Rainbow Pride and a member of the Richmond Task Force to End Gender-Based Violence. She is a former Volunteer for the Asian Women’s Shelter, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, and the organization Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women & Transgender Community.
She is also a filmmaker and Board Member of the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project. She retired as a Dental Hygienist following 41 years in that profession.
Michelle Zhang
Michelle Zhang is the Founder of the Society of Heart’s Delight (SHD), a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit advancing civic engagement and belonging within immigrant communities and beyond. A passionate LGBTQ+ advocate, Zhang curated China-related content for Global Pride 2020 and has made LGBTQ+ visibility and equality central to her work. Since founding SHD in 2020, she has led initiatives that bridge cultural divides and elevate LGBTQ+ voices, partnering with leaders and organizations including State Senator Scott Wiener, Assemblymember Alex Lee, former Assemblymember Evan Low, the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, and Silicon Valley Pride.
Originally from Chengdu, China, Zhang moved to the Bay Area in 2017 and has since become a leading voice for LGBTQ+ inclusion, cross-cultural collaboration, and immigrant civic participation. Her work has been featured on NBC News, ABC7, and Voice of America.
2026 Celebrating Bay Area AAPI LGBTQ+ Women Leaders & Allies
Published on May 21, 2026
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