Filipina woman says California’s LGBTQ protections inspired her Bay Area move

By CBS Bay Area

For Kiki Lopez, self-care is important. 

“I look at myself as my role model,” she told CBS News Bay Area, as she was putting on some makeup for the day. 

As a community activist across the Bay Area, she keeps herself busy. She was also recently awarded San Francisco’s Emerging Leadership Award during Filipino History Month. 

The world may also know her as her drag persona, MX Kiki Krunch. 

“I identify as a transgender woman who does drag,” she said. “Never felt alive honestly when I perform because I was like, ‘Oh, this is how I envision it.'”

Lopez has been performing drag professionally since she moved to San Francisco. She uprooted her life from the Philippines about four years ago. 

“There’s not enough resources that are accessible to the public from where I came from,” she said. “California is a sanctuary for me.”

“San Francisco is filled with different organizations helping out members of the transgender community, and also folks who are living with HIV. So, I am also living with HIV, and so they helped me start a new life here,” Lopez said. 

“It’s about people. It’s just about people. We’re family members, neighbors, friends, coworkers, we just need the same ordinary things that everyone else needs,” Shannon Minter, the legal director for National Center for LGBTQ Rights, told CBS News Bay Area. 

He also had relocated from Texas to California to transition safely and confidently. 

“California was the first to do so many things, including back to that first time about the mid-1990s, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission had a groundbreaking first of its kind, hearing on the full spectrum of human rights and civil rights affecting transgender people,” he said. “California has been such, by far without doubt, the single most supportive, welcoming and innovative state when it comes to transgender people.” 

“The legislature just passed, and the governor just signed $23 million grant for allocation of funds to support healthcare for transgender young people because now the federal government is pulling funding for that, leaving so many families so vulnerable and California is not going to let that happen. There’s a bill moving forward to update California’s law protecting LGBT young people from conversion therapy,” Minter said.

As for Lopez, she is grateful to have found her community. 

“A lot of the folks from the red states to travel here to California, specifically to San Francisco, to seek for help and assistance with their transitioning,” she said. 

As the chair of the Queer and Transgender API Strong Coalition, Lopez continues to be a safe space for others. 

“Don’t be afraid to be yourself, don’t be afraid to be your authentic self. There are a lot of people waiting to embrace you, waiting to welcome you, and waiting and excited to be a part of your life,” she said.