Nguyen (Bang Hai) Papers, 1987-2021

View only results with digital items
Printable guide [HTML]

Online content

Online items

Summary

Title:
Bang Hai Nguyen papers
Dates:
1987-2021
Creators:
Nguyen, Bang Hai Nguyen, Bany
Abstract:
Extent:
0.4 linear feet (1 manuscript box)
Language:
Preferred citation:

Bang Hai Nguyen papers. GLBT Historical Society

Background

Scope and content:

This collection primarily consists of materials accumulated by Bang Nguyen in the course of his activism with GAPA. Meeting agendas, announcements, and notes from 1987-1988; the 1988-1993 issues of the Lavender Godzilla newsletter; event programs; member lists; and digitized photographs document GAPA’s founding and early activities. A December 1987/Winter 1988 Rice magazine profile and 2021 oral history interview by Stanford student Arjan Walia offer insight into Nguyen’s role in and reflections on GAPA, GCHP, and Asian American, gay, and HIV/AIDS movements during 1980s-1990s, as well as information about his biography. The collection’s limited professional materials include a 2021 C.V. and a digitized, 1990 reference letter.

Biographical / historical:

Bang Hai Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam (presently Ho Chi Minh City) in 1960 as the youngest of 7 children. Nguyen’s mother passed away when he was 2 years old and, upon his father remarrying, Nguyen and his siblings went to live with their stepmother. Nguyen lived in South Vietnam throughout the Vietnam War, but was forced to relocate at 15 years old after the fall of Saigon. Alongside his uncle, Ngyuen left the country by boat and began a multi-month, difficult journey that included stops in refugee camps in the Philippines and Wake Island before ending up in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. Ngyuen, considered an unaccompanied minor, was sponsored and given housing alongside other Vietnamese refugees by a professor from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. In an oral history interview, Ngyuen explains that his experience as a refugee was deeply formative, shaping his career endeavors, commitment to community and coalition building, and political activism throughout his life. In 1976, Ngyuen came in contact with family members in California, leading to his move to the state. He completed high school and began his undergraduate studies in economics at UCLA. Ngyuen’s time at UCLA was characterized by significant involvement in community and political student organizations. He was elected as the vice president of the Vietnamese Students’ Association and later became the vice president of the Associated Students. UCLA was also where Ngyuen reports first coming into contact with other gay Asian men and LGBT organizations. After graduating from UCLA, Nguyen moved to San Francisco, where he took a job at the Center for Southeast Asian Refugee Resettlement. Nine months later, in 1984, Nguyen moved to Cambridge, MA to attend a summer program and then the Master of Public Policy program at the Harvard Kennedy School. He returned to San Francisco after earning his M.P.P. in 1986, taking a job with the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Economic Development. With his return to San Francisco, Nguyen became active in Bay Area gay, Asian American, and AIDS movements and organizations. In 1987-1988, he joined with fellow members of the Pacific Center for Human Growth’s gay Asian rap group to form the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance (GAPA). He was also a co-founder and active member of the GAPA Community HIV Project (GCHP) and Asian/Pacific AIDS Coalition. After leaving the Office of Housing and Economic Development in 1988, Nguyen shifted his professional focus toward public health. He earned a Dr.P.H. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1998, and held positions at the AIDS Office of the San Francisco Department of Public Health (1988-1990), Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project at University of California, San Francisco (1994-2000), Cancer Prevention Institute of California (1999-2014); and the Division of Epidemiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine (2005-2016).

Acquisition information:
The collection was donated to the GLBT Historical Society by Arjan Walia in June 2022. Permission to digitize photographs given by Bang Hai Nguyen in August 2024. Addition by Arjan Walia in September 2024.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid created by GLBT Historical Society staff.
Date Prepared:
1987-2021
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using Record Express for OAC5 on July 14, 2025, 2:54 p.m.

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research. Funding for processing this collection was provided by the National Archives' National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Terms of access:

All requests for reproductions and/or permission to publish or quote from material must be submitted in writing to the GLBT Historical Society Archivist. Permission for reproductions and/or permission to publish or quote from material is given on behalf of the GLBT Historical Society as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Preferred citation:

Bang Hai Nguyen papers. GLBT Historical Society

Location of this collection:
989 Market Street, Lower Level
San Francisco, CA 94103, US
Contact:
(415) 777-5455
reference@glbthistory.org
Website