APIQWTC grew out of the API Lunar New Year Banquet, founded in 1987 by a small group of queer and transgender Asian women.
APIQWTC was officially founded in 1999 by Crystal Jang, Koko Lin, and Trinity Ordona, as a new hub for established and new community groups to exchange news and coordinate projects in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In 2012, the co-founders reported that APIQWTC provides the space for an estimated 1,000 queer women and transgender individuals of Asian descent to gather and celebrate who they are.
[3] APIQWTC is a space for "many queer women and transgender Asians [who] live in the closet in fear of losing their family and community.
Every year, APIQWTC provides two scholarship to deserving API LGBT students pursuing higher education.