8 Asians

Yul Kwon at Stanford University (4:35)

This noon at Stanford University, Asian American activist, Stanford alum and Survivor winner Yul Kwon and Dr. Sophia Yen, along with John Lewis, were part of a student Stanford rally against California’s Proposition 4 and Proposition 8.

Yul spoke of his time at Stanford and how he had proposed earlier this year to his fiancée. Yul met his fiancée through a fellow survivor contestant, Brad, who happened to be gay and how Brad had found the love of his life in his partner Donovan and how Yul wanted the same rights for Brad & Donovan as he had. John Lewis and others had also noted that not too long ago, inter-racial marriage was illegal in the United States – can you imagine that? Pretty unfathomable.

As a Stanford student noted, which I thought about and agreed with, equal marriage rights is the civil rights issue of our generation and we should NOT be changing our state constitution to institute discrimination. Stanford is having a MASSIVE 150 – 200 person phone banking session this Saturday – apparently the largest in the state, to help defeat Proposition 4 & 8. I also recorded John Lewis’s empassioned speech which you can view here.

Stanford students

My friend, Dr. Sophia Yen, a current clinical instructor at Stanford University hospital, spoke out against Proposition 4 – “Waiting period and parental notification before termination of minor’s pregnancy. Initiative constitutional amendment.” Sophia gave a terrific summary as to why one should vote NO on 4 and discussed her personal experience about counseling pregnant teens, and why NO on 4 would be bad for the safety and health of pregnant teens. You can learn more about the issue from the video below (4:30):