Helen Zia is the true definition of an Asian American. She’s done so much in her lifetime. Starting from being a member of Princeton University 1970s first graduating class of women, to being a anti-war and LGBTQ rights activist, she is a force not to be denied.

Helen Zia was born in Newark, NJ in 1952 to first generation immigrants from Shanghai. After she graduated from college, she eventually moved to Detroit, Michigan working as a construction laborer, an autoworker and a community organizer. Eventually she soon realized her life’s work as a journalist and writer, and has received many journalism awards for her striking stories. Zia received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the Law School of the City University of New York, for bringing important matters of law and civil rights into public view.

In 1982, Zia played an important role in federal civil rights by bringing charges against the perpetrators of Vincent Chin’s killing. Chin was brutally beaten in a suburb of Detroit and was considered a pivotal hate crime against an Asian America. There was little response to the crime but through her journalism and advocacy she encouraged the Asian American movement at the time by demanding justice for Chin.

Zia also advocaded for the LGBTQ not only because she believes in them, but because she’s a part of that community as well. In fact, in June 2008 Zia married Lia Shigemura in San Francisco. This made them one of the first same-sex couples to legally marry in the state of California. Helen always stood for what she believed in.