Willy Wilkinson

Willy Wilkinson is a writer, public health consultant, and queer activist. He was born and raised in San Mateo, California as the youngest of four children. His mother is Chinese and hails from Hawaii. His father is Caucasian, Scottish, English, and Irish.

Willy studied Women’s Studies in UC Santa Cruz, where he first became politicized as a feminist. He started organizing Asian lesbians in Santa Cruz and continued that work in Boston, New York, and eventually the Bay Area. Willy has been involved in several of the first conferences for lesbians of color, an international conference for gays and lesbians of color, the first retreat for Asian lesbians in Northern California, and the gay and lesbian march on Washington. He was also the editor of Phoenix Rising, a newsletter for Asian lesbians in the Bay Area. Since receiving his Masters of Public Health from UC Berkeley, Willy’s work has been focused on cultural competency training for health care providers serving the transgender community. His book, Born on the Edge of Race and Gender, is a memoir reflecting on his “intersectional experience with race, gender, sexuality, disability, class, and parenthood, within a larger cultural competency, public health and political advocacy framework”.