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Susie Ling and Friends Re: Gubernator

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29 July 2020 To: Mayor Tom Adams and Distinguished Members of Monrovia City Council From: Susie Ling and friends Re: Gubernatorial Pardon for Steven Kiyoshi Kuromiya This season has been a time for all of us to study our own prejudices, and to move towards righting past wrongs. Synopsis of Request: Right before this COVID-19 shutdown, Governor Newsom created the California LBGTQ Clemency Initiative (see LBGTQ Clemency Initiative and Taking On Historic Homophobia) and posthumously pardoned civil rights giant, Bayard Rustin, who had been arrested in Pasadena in 1953 for a “morals charge” for having consenting sex with another man. (See https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-05/newsom-bayard-rustin-pardon-lgbtq-people- clemency-discriminatory-laws.) This gives me inspiration to ask the City Council of Monrovia to request Governor Newsom to pardon Monrovian Steven Kiyoshi Kuromiya (1943-2000). I hope that the people of Monrovia can now show remorse for our history. Kiyoshi was arrested by Monrovia Police in Case #C3702 on 14 August 1956 for Offence 836.3, 288(a) “Lewd or Lascivious Acts with a Minor” in California’s Penal Code. Although I’m not able to obtain the official documents for this juvenile case, I share what I know from Kiyoshi’s past interviews: He said that it was at Monrovia High that he came to realize that “even more important than my racial identity was my gayness.” As a Japanese American, he had rocks thrown at him on the way to grade school. He said that when he was 11 [sic, actually 13] years old, he was caught by the Monrovia Police engaging in harmless sexual play with a 16-year old boy and was sent to Juvenile Hall for three days and gained notoriety as a Japanese American in jail. Kuromiya said the judge “told me [and my parents] that I was in danger of leading a lewd and immoral life… I spent two years trying to find a definition for the word ‘lewd’, but I couldn’t figure out how it was spelled, so I was in the dark as to what my future held for me. (From https://www.rafu.com/2016/09/the-kuromiyas-of-monrovia-a-family-of-unsung-heroes/) Excerpted from a 2020 article on Kiyoshi: As punishment, he was sentenced to three days in juvenile hall, with an additional court order demanding that he receive hormone treatments from a glandular specialist. Though unbothered by his brief incarceration, Kuromiya remembered the treatments as “a traumatic experience, partly because I didn’t know exactly what they were doing to me at the time.” Given that Kuromiya was warned that the treatments would increase his already active sex drive, one can speculate that this infusion of “male” hormones was an early attempt at conversion therapy. In addition to increasing his sex drive and causing his voice to break soon afterwards, the incident left him with a feeling of shame and perversion.” (From: https://www.thebody.com/article/remembering-kiyoshi-kuromiya) Monrovia High School Yearbook, 1961. Steve Kuromiya, History Club vice president, is in the front row, third from right. Background of Steven Kiyoshi Kuromiya Kiyoshi was a third generation Monrovian. His grandfather and grandmother, Hisamitsu James (1887- 1969) and Hada (1900-1988), came to Monrovia from Sierra Madre near 1930 with his family. The family lived at 609 S. California Street, the 2nd house south of Colorado Blvd. They were eventually evicted from this address when neighbors complained to City Council that they were north of the “colored line.” They then lived on Huntington Drive, near Primrose. Kiyoshi’s father, Hiroshi (1917-1982), graduated from Monrovia-Arcadia-Duarte High School in 1935 and was in the produce industry. Hiroshi and Emiko (1919-2018) had a pre-planned engagement party on the Sunday that Pearl Harbor was bombed. After World War II, he brought his young family back to Monrovia in 1946. Hiroshi and Emiko are buried at Live Oak Cemetery. Kiyoshi liked to say he was conceived in Monrovia, but born in the Heart Mountain concentration camp in 1943. He grew up at 939 Royal Oaks Drive. He graduated with honors from Monrovia High in 1961. He then went to University of Pennsylvania as a Benjamin Franklin Scholar (BFS). Aside from being a civil rights and LGBT activist, Kuromiya was a ranked Scrabble player, a food critic, and a Kundalini yoga master. Here are some of his known activities: 1962 – Congress of Racial Equality Maryland diner sit-in 1963 – Met Dr. Martin Luther King at March on Washington 1965 –Selma to Montgomery March. Attacked by sheriff deputies in Montgomery while leading African American high school students. Kuromiya suffered 22 stitches from the clubbing. 1965-68 – Helped lead the anti-war movement at University of Pennsylvania and produced one of the most well-known protest posters of the era 1965-69 – Independence Hall Annual Reminders (early LGBT demonstrations in Philadelphia) 1967 – participated in the March on the Pentagon (anti-war with Abbie Hoffman) 1967 – Authored 1968 Collegiate Guide to Greater Philadelphia 1968 – During King’s funeral week, Kuromiya took care of Martin III and Dexter 1968 – FBI arrest for “Fxxx the Draft” poster (dismissed in 1971 in Cohen V. California) 1968 – Demonstrated at the Democratic Convention in Chicago 1969 – Co-founded Gay Liberation Front (GLF) after the Stonewall Riots 1970 – Attended the Black Panther Party Convention in Philadelphia as an openly gay delegate 1970s – Met architect Buckminster Fuller and worked on six books with Fuller 1987 – Co-founder of ACT UP Philadelphia chapter 1989 – Founded the Critical Path newsletter (then Critical Path AIDS Project, now Critical Path Project) 1999 – Lead plaintiff in Kuromiya v United States to allow use of medical marijuana 2000 – Kuromiya died just days after his 57th birthday. 2018 – San Francisco Rainbow Honor Walk Honoree 2019 - National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at the Stonewall National Monument Inductee A 12-minute video in Kiyoshi’s voice: https://www.them.us/story/themstory-kiyoshi-kuromiya [Errata: Kuromiya was more likely 13 years old when he was arrested in Monrovia.] Kuromiya’s memorial services were held at St. Luke’s on 23 May 2000, and he is interred at Live Oak Cemetery. Joining me in asking Monrovia City Council to work with the Governor’s California LBGTQ Clemency Initiative to pursue a pardon for Kiyoshi Kuromiya are these UNCONFIRMED stakeholders: Larry Kuromiya, Kiyoshi’s younger brother Susan, Sharon, Gail and Miya Kuromiya, Kiyoshi’s younger cousins and daughters of Yosh Kuromiya Keiko Sakatani, Monrovia High Class of 1964, granddaughter of Monrovia’s “Strawberry King” Yutaro Uyeda Meri and Tina Asano, Monrovia High Classes of 19????, daughters of Toshio and Terry Asano of Monrovia and granddaughters of Tom and Mary Asano of Monrovia Marvin Inouye, Monrovia High Class of 1969 .
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