Pedal Power for Aids

KOCA WEN, 23, and her boyfriend, SU-TING FU, 24, saw the California AIDS Ride televised last year and thought it would be a good way to participate in a charitable cause. But when they each went to raise the $2,500 in donations required to participate in the ride, they found some in the Asian community hesitant to contribute. Wen, a financial analyst, had one more obstacle: She had never ridden a bicycle before.

Koca Wen: I asked my family to support me. They have been real supportive of whatever I did. I wanted to show them how important it was to me and how important it was for them.

I grew up a lot in Asia. People there don’t talk about homosexuality. They don’t accept it. There are a lot of [Asian] teenagers [here] who I feel are very repressed, and I hope that I can show them there is a place to go such as the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. That this is not a discriminatory disease.

I asked my family to give me whatever they could. My mom was very supportive, but my aunts, whom I’m close to, refused to give me any money. They said, “Those kinds of people, we don’t need to get involved with them.” When I found out my family was opposed to it, it was very emotional for me.

There is not enough outreach in the [Asian] community. It is a preventable disease that we can all do something about.

A lot of people at work have been real supportive. I did face some opposition at work as well. Some felt that AIDS didn’t deserve to have that much time in the spotlight.

I’m still learning to ride a bike. I have lost count of the times I have fallen.I think it is a lengthy process. I am a lot more comfortable on it than I was. I’m still scared. I think that adds to the challenge.

Su-Ting Fu: The response, at least from the Asian community that we have approached, had been rather negative. Based on our experience, the sentiment toward AIDS is that it is not our business. It doesn’t involve us and it’s a gay problem or other people’s problem. That is sort of the trend. We have come across some very supportive Asians, but the difficulty still lies with people being resistant.

The additional challenge was Koca learning to ride a bike. She had never in her youth gotten a chance to ride a bike. We thought this would be a great time for her to learn. We have had a few scrapes and falls, but generally speaking, it has been a very good time.