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Tamara Ching

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Name
  
Tamara Ching


Tamara Ching Tamara Ching ChingTamara Twitter

Tamara Ching is an Asian-American transwoman and San Francisco Bay Area transgender activist. Also known as the "God Mother of Polk [Street]", she is an advocate for trans, HIV, and sex work-related causes.

Contents

Tamara Ching Tamara Ching We Were There

Early life and education

Ching was born in 1949 and grew up in the Tenderloin district in San Francisco, California. She is multi-racial and has German, Hawaiian, and Chinese ancestry. Throughout her teen years, she became a sex worker as a way of survival. Ching was empowered to address the contemporary issues related to her experience as a sex worker. Suffering with diabetes and hepatitis C, she continues to do work within the Transgender and sex worker community since the 1960s and strives to create a space for young trans people.

Activism

  • Transgender and commercial sex work advocacy.
  • Endorsed Proposition K during the November 2008 San Francisco general election. which did not pass.

    • Honors and awards

  • Honored in a Clarion Alley mural portraying trans women activists in the Mission District of San Francisco, California. Created in 2012 by Tanya Wischerath.
  • Best Community Service by and Individual award, Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club
  • Visibility Award and Volunteer of the Year, GAPA Community HIV Prevention Project
  • Lifetime Achievement Commendation, CA State Senate
  • Most Empowering Transgender Individual in San Francisco, Team SF

    • Interviews

  • Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria. A documentary by Susan Stryker.

    • Published work

  • Ching, Tamara. "Stranger in Paradise: Tamara Ching's Journey to the Gender Divide." A. Magazine 3.1 (1993): 85-86

    • Personal life

    Tamara Ching lives in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, where she has lived since 1992.

    References

    Tamara Ching Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA