NEW YORK CITY — The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance ( NQAPIA ) announces a groundbreaking family acceptance campaign designed to bridge the cultural divide that prevents Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander ( API ) children from coming out to their parents.

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NQAPIA's new Asian Family Acceptance Campaign includes a landmark series of emotionally-moving television ads, entitled "Family Is Still Family," plus a series of in-person workshops around the country, presented by API parents of LGBT children. The ads will run for the first time on major international Asian television networks in the U.S. during June for LGBT Pride Month.

A special May 17 news conference in New York City will unveil these powerful television ads and introduce API and LGBT parents and children who will share their stories of heartbreak and triumph.

API LGBT youth face unique obstacles to coming out, including the fear of shaming and dishonoring their parents and ancestors. These cultural obstacles often lead to self-loathing, depression and suicide. NQAPIA's revolutionary multilingual "Family Is Still Family" advertising campaign removes the specter of shame, silence and guilt by having parents open the closet door for their kids, offering unconditional love and acceptance. These life-affirming messages are presented in English, Chinese ( Mandarin and Cantonese dialects ), Hindi, Korean, Japanese Vietnamese and Tagalog.

"For generations, a culture of shame and misinformation has kept Asian American youth in the closet," said Glenn Magpantay, Executive Director of NQAPIA. "Our new Asian Family Acceptance Campaign will break this cycle of shame and suicide by helping API parents, many who are immigrants and bilingual, to open the door to unconditional love and acceptance for their LGBT children."

The "Family Is Still Family" TV ad campaign will run in June ( LGBT Pride Month ). The ads are scheduled to air on SinoVision ( Chinese ) June 1 to June 7, Television Korea 24( TVK ) June 8 to June 14, and on StarTV ( South Asian ) June 15 to June 21. A different ethnic ad in each language will run each week during June.

The following API parents and children will share their stories at the May 17 news conference:

— Joanne Lee: Mother of Skyler, a trans teen in Wisconsin who committed suicide because she felt she lacked family support.

— Pastor Danilo Cortez: A Southern Baptist minister from Los Angeles who works to change anti-LGBT church policy; father of gay son.

— Marsha Aizumi: Mother of trans son from Pasadena.

— Kham Moua: Gay man and survivor of conversion therapy ordered by his parents.

— Tevin Ith: Out-of-closet college student and member of PrYSM, an LGBT youth group.

Supporting the PSA campaign is an innovative 12-city tour of Asian Family Acceptance Workshops, beginning in May, led by parents who appear in the NQAPIA ad campaign. The workshops will offer culturally appropriate peer-support and practical steps to empower API parents to support their LGBT children in the coming-out process. Host cities will include Washington, DC; New York City; Chicago; Philadelphia; Atlanta; New Orleans, Seattle; Boston; and San Diego, among others.

The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance ( NQAPIA ) is a federation of LGBTQ Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander organizations. NQAPIA seeks to build the capacity of local LGBT API organizations, invigorate grassroots organizing, develop leadership, and challenge homophobia, racism, and anti-immigrant bias. NQAPIA is an independent non-profit organization.

The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance ( NQAPIA ) is on the Web atNQAPIA.org. On Facebook at facebook.com/NQAPIA and on Twitter at @NQAPIA.