Pasha Eve: Harm Reduction and the Pursuit of Justice as a Queer, Asian Activist

Pasha Eve admits that she “checks off a number of boxes” that often make for a multifaceted, if not challenging experience.

“I’m considered an elder, whatever that means; I’m queer AF; I’m also Korean; I was born in Wanju, South Korea, and I’m biracial,” Pasha says.

Pasha is also a survivor of human trafficking and a former, consenting adult sex worker. From her own storied history, she built nonprofit Red Light Resources International (RLRI), hoping to help curb human trafficking by supporting human rights for everyone, including consenting adult sex workers.

“There’s a cycle that kind of runs through, where you kind of get stuck between working as a sex worker, you want to get out in the end, you wind up in labor trafficking type of situation, because, you know, you wind up working for your landlord and in exchange for rent, and that doesn’t help anybody,” Pasha says. “I am a strong believer that there’s a huge difference between human trafficking victims and consenting adult sex workers, and when you conflate the two, you do a disservice to both populations.”

Pasha’s work led her to Parasol Patrol, started by queer activist Eli Bazon in collaboration with mutual friend Charles Rozanski, owner of Mile High Comics. It was formed to protect children from the onslaught of hateful speech from protesters at LGBTQ-focused, family-friendly events.

Pasha recalls helping at events like Drag Story Time at Mile High Comics in 2019, which were increasingly met with angry, aggressive protestors outside. Protestors would bring out “borderline-pornographic” signs and masks, yelling at children with the intent to scare them. Parasol Patrol bought umbrellas and over-the-ear protection for children out of pocket at first, but they eventually made a Facebook page, which was met with huge success and growth. 

People soon began reaching out for help nationwide, and Parasol Patrol became a national organization.

Pasha says all of this work is related, and community-building work acts as a preventative measure for LGBTQ youth who may later need those resources and safe spaces.

“It’s usually teens, tweens, young people, that have either been kicked out of their house or run away, or usually a combination of both, and usually, because they’re gay or queer in some way. So, they turn to survival sex work, or they get taken in by an unscrupulous person that’s like, ‘Hey, for a place to stay.’ That kind of thing. It’s not something that they want to do, but they do it to get by, right?”

COVID put a damper on the progress, and with in-person events on pause, Pasha and the crew looked at other ways to help, including microgrants, “boredom baskets” for kids, and mutual-aid requests.

The team adapted yet again with the 2020 protests following the death of George Floyd, helping to keep participants in youth-led, BIPOC protests safe. Pasha would often drive her large pickup truck (“It’s so big; I think there’s a hole in the ozone layer following it.”) at the back of the crowd to help mitigate traffic.

Pasha recalls a youth-led protest at the Capitol last year: “All of the speakers were all young people, teenagers. This one kid who speaks to a lot of events, actually—he’s so talented; he’s gifted; he truly is … He leaves, and Ashira (Campbell) says in the mic, ‘Can you believe he’s 12 years old?’ and jaws dropped. So, we’ve had this dichotomy between, you know, these cute little fluffy unicorns (at events for children) and the hate and what young people face as they get older, you know?”

Things hit especially close to home for Pasha following the massacre of eight Asian people in the Atlanta spa shootings earlier this year and the eruption of protests condemning anti-Asian hate. 

“Kind of a lot of different aspects of my life kind of focused, and I’ve spoken at a lot of events,” Pasha says, specifically recounting the candlelight vigil held in March at Old Chinatown by Coors Field. 

Pasha told the story of her grandmother, who fled with her four children after her husband was arrested from North Korea to the South Korean border. They were denied entry and were forced to survive in the woods until they were able to sneak out, wedged tightly together on a long journey with no bathroom on a Chinese fishing boat. 

“Talking about that Korean side of my family is not something I get to do a lot … But, speaking at that candlelight vigil, I had everyone do a Korean bow, and I looked up, and hundreds and hundreds of people were kneeling … It really meant a lot to me.”

Pasha has hope moving forward, but she was disheartened by her experience working in more LGBTQ-focused spaces pre-pandemic, versus the BIPOC-focused protests in 2020 and 2021, saying BIPOC events received significantly less interest and volunteers.

“I know that COVID is a factor, I do, but we’re very small, and even the donations that we would get, if we were helping out BIPOC rallies? Mm-mm. No. For the candlelight vigil I was talking about, we had two volunteers show up. Two. For the big AAPI rally, the only volunteers that came were the ones I had met from the candlelight vigil! That alone shows that the community is still very segregated, and it’s not OK. The most vulnerable population, the most murdered, are BIPOC, trans sex workers. Big time.”

Pasha is looking forward to pursuing more in-person events, but she knows that the blatant racism in this country, unearthed from the previous administration, isn’t going anywhere and urges LGBTQ people to be intersectional in their pursuit of progress.

“If you can’t physically go out, then donate. If you can’t donate, just share posts, share events. Nothing is too small. But I really want to see more of our community out there for these kids … We want to be the grown-ups for these kids that we didn’t have … I would love to see more queer people of color, and just queer people in general, coming out to show these kids that they are loved, not in spite of who they are, but because of who they are. It makes a difference.”

To learn more and get involved, check out parasolpatrol.org and rlri.org.