Tales from the Margins – Monday at 9pm: Crossing Bridges

CROSSING BRIDGES: in this personal documentary, Rama Luksiarto, who was born and raised in Indonesia, but moved to Canada for high school and university, reflects on his difficult and often painful journey towards accepting and embracing his sexuality, identity, and culture as a gay Asian man and immigrant to Canada.

CROSSING BRIDGES also raises wider issues about the intersections of race, culture and LGBTIQ issues – not least the pervasive racism against Asians in the western male gay community. The popular gay hook-up app Grindr, for example, allows gay white men to write in their profiles: ‘No Asians,’ or ‘Not interested in Asians,’ or ‘I don’t find Asians attractive.'” As long as this blatant sexual racism against Asian gay men and more widely gay men of colour continues under the pretence of “preference”, we still have a long way to go before we reach true inclusion and diversity based on equality and respect, even within the LGBTIQ community.

The programme includes a conversation with filmmaker Rama Luksiarto about his film CROSSING BRIDGES and the issues it raises.