The Politics of Vernacular Activism: Hmong Americans Organizing for Social Justice in Minnesota

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn 2012, queer Hmong Americans in Minnesota organized to defeat a state-wide ballot initiative that sought to constitutionally amended the definition of marriage in Minnesota to being a union solely between one man and one woman. This article examines a collective called Midwest Solidarity Movement and their strategies of employing a “vernacular activism” to defeat this ballot initiative. I also utilize personal reflections and participant observation conducted during various Midwest Solidarity Movement activities to demonstrate how queer Hmong Americans engaged their own ethnic communities within the political atmosphere of same-sex marriage. This article makes the argument that queer Hmong Americans actively used intersectional and race-conscious strategies to involve their own communities around queer issues, which ultimately helped the cause of the larger movement to legalize same-sex marriage in the United States.