Michiyo Fukaya (25 April 1953 – 9 July 1987), also known as Michiyo Cornell, was an American feminist poet and activist whose work played an important part in the lesbian and Asian American communities.Hom, Alice Y. "Fukaya, Michiyo (Michiyo Cornell)." Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered History in America. Ed. Marc Stein. Vol. 1. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004. 421-422. In 1979, Fukaya gave a speech entitled "Living in Asian America: An Asian American Lesbian's Address Before the Washington Monument" at the First National Third World Lesbian and Gay Conference.Haggerty, George, and Bonnie Zimmerman, eds. Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures. New York: Garland, 2000. Drawing a parallel between the oppression of men and women in Third World countries to the oppression experienced by lesbian and gay Asian Americans, she acknowledged they both stemmed from white racism.Leong, Russell, Asian American Sexualities: Dimensions of the Gay and Lesbian Experience. London: Routledge, 1995. Fukaya called attention to both racism in the lesbian and gay movement as well as heterosexism in the growing Asian American community.Hom, p. 421. Fukaya's writing appeared in publications such as Azalea: A Magazine by Third World Lesbians. Her poetry and prose is collected in A Fire Is Burning, It Is In Me: The Life and Writing of Michiyo Fukaya.Fukaya, Michiyo, and Gwendolyn L. Shervington. A Fire Is Burning, It Is in Me: The Life and Writings of Michiyo Fukaya. Norwich, VT: New Victoria Publishers, 1996.
Michiyo suffered from depression for a significant part of her life and had a difficult time living as an Asian-American lesbian and single mother in Vermont. As a result, she committed suicide with a gunshot wound to the head on 9 July 1987 at only 34 years of age.
References