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Peter Jackson and Mark McLelland AsiaPacifiQueer was founded in August 2000 by Australia-based researchers Peter Jackson (Australia National University) and Mark McLelland (University of Queensland) as an on-going collaboration between scholars who are researching queer cultures and peoples in post-colonial societies of the Asia-Pacific, as well as Africa and Latin America. Research on gender and sexual difference in Asian and Pacific societies and amongst immigrant Asia/Pacific diasporas is attracting increasing attention from university departments, publishers and journals. A growing number of academics and honours/postgraduate students in Australia and New Zealand working in Asian Studies, Cultural Studies, History, Anthropology, Health, Epidemiology and other disciplines are engaged in pioneering research in this field. Yet, researchers working on queer cultures and peoples within these fields often find themselves shut out of the mainstream when presenting at conferences where few delegates are either interested in or knowledgeable about the kind of research we do. To help remedy this situation, APQ aims to organise a series of conferences and workshops to provide a crossdisciplinary-cum-postdisciplinary forum for researchers working on transgender and same-sex issues with an Asia Pacific focus. We also welcome the participation of researchers working on sexuality in post-colonial societies of Africa and Latin America. APQ's first one-day Conference was held on February 16, 2001 at the University of Technology, Sydney. There were three panels featuring ten presentations that covered a wide range of topics: Genders and Transgenders in the Pacific, Genders and Transgenders in Asia and Queerying Theorisations. The fifty participants in the first APQ conference included academics, members of ethnic communities, representatives from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered organisations, and NGO outreach workers. Response to the papers was very positive and we were delighted when Intersections offered to host a special AsiaPacifiQueer issue featuring some of the day's presentations. The APQ organising team has been expanded to include Peter Jackson (ANU), Olivia Khoo (Melbourne), Fran Martin (La Trobe), Mark McLelland (Queensland) and Audrey Yue (Melbourne) and the second APQ conference on the theme of 'Media, Technology and Queer Cultures' will take place at the University of Queensland on 3-4 December 2001. We hope that the second meeting will be as successful as the first and that it will lead to further opportunities for collaboration. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the editors of Intersections for their enthusiastic support of APQ events. We would also like to gratefully acknowledge the financial and administrative support offered by The Cultural Studies Association of Australia, The Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies (UQ), The Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (ANU), The Institute for Cultural Research (UWS and UTS) and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Community Development Fund. 
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