Asian and Gay, no really, it’s a thing
When I was coming to terms with my own sexuality and what was “normal” and what wasn’t, I entered this endless rabbithole of the internet and watched countless vlogs on Youtube. This video by Buzzfeed is a nice introduction, I guess, to the world of non heteronormative Asians. I cannot speak to everyone’s experience because of course, I just don’t know. This video shows different levels of acceptance from family, friends, and other people from positions of power. These reactions range from, “Well … duh!” to “No. You’re not.” And the latter is the one that I have most commonly experienced with my family when it comes to the idea of queerness even existing.
I remember when Prop 8 came around my senior year of high school. This proposition was to repeal the state’s marriage equality status. I, being the liberal-ish Bay-sian that I was was vehemently against it. I brought it up to my mom one day while she was driving me home and she said something along the lines of, “Why do they even need to get married?” Uh.. mom, why does anyone need to get married? They want to. Who cares? Apparently my hyper conservative Vietnamese bubble cared, a lot.
I think this is something very important to teach, especially in areas where there are large populations of immigrants from Asia. Beyond the laywer/doctor/engineer trope, Asians are also super heteronormative. The video is short and covers a range of topics that can be covered in classes ranging from low to high level students. It starts off with the interviewees talking about their pronouns. This topic is something that is becoming “trendy” because there are more and more people coming out as non gender binary and we as educators have an obligation to cover it in our classes. Students do not have to be he/him, or she/her. They have the right to choose. Also through the flashback photos of before/after coming out, students can use comparatives or even just talk about transformation.
PS: The opening line “I don’t want you to date me because I’m Asian” rings so true to me and I am here for it.
Thanks for sharing this video, Ann! It was interesting to hear their perspectives, especially their pronoun preferences. I think we already talked about this in our class, but do you think that having students state their pronoun preference in the first class or so would create safe classroom environment? I personally think that we could give them an opportunity to state their preference, but it could be totally optional if they share it with others or not. If students have stronger sense of what they prefer to be called, they could express it, but if not, I think it’s fine if they don’t share it. I wonder how it works in your target context, for younger children who might not necessarily have figured out their gender identity yet. Do you think it’s a good idea or will create more confusion?
Also, I didn’t know about Prop 8 at all, and I’m surprised to read that there was such a movement against same-sex marriages in California back then. I found this website (https://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/gay-marriage-around-the-world/) that shows the timeline of legalizing same-sex marriages in the world, and the fact that the US legalized same-sex marriages only recently (in 2015) actually surprises me a lot.
I honestly don’t know if I would introduce the idea of non-normative pronouns in my class. I work in Asia as a foreigner so I don’t see it as my place. It is something I could discuss with the teachers, but ultimately, it would be up to their discretion. If I taught in a high school, it might be different, but as I tend to teach in contexts where I am the youngest, newest, and foreign teacher I don’t have many privileges besides having been hired in the first place. I think I would push the teachers more towards being open minded amongst one another versus with the students. Especially if I don’t have the language skills to explain my rationale behind it.
This article is a gem.
Truly a masterpiece of content.
Thanks for sharing this insightful article.