LGBT

Aung Lin

ASA 2-Reading Reflection #10

Title: LGBT

Word Count: 416

1.       Title: “Emergence of Queer Vietnamese America” by Gina Masequesmay

Vietnamese LGBT Community at San Francisco Pride Parade

Before I read this article, I never heard of queer immigrants organizing their own support groups. I always thought LGBT community is mostly white and black people. I’ve never seen gay Vietnamese at the San Francisco Gay Parade. I was shocked to learn that some Vietnamese are openly gay or lesbian. I can’t imagine what David in this article went through. He’s catholic and being himself is against his religion. I don’t know much about religions but I only know that being LGBT is against Christianity and Buddhism. I was shocked that Vietnamese refugees usually settle in Orange County, LA instead of San Jose because of cheaper housing, hot weather, and LA Chinatown. I always thought San Jose was like the Vietnamese town.

Questions:

1)      Why there was only a few studies about lives of queer Vietnamese in the past 27 years?

2)      How can a person explore his/her own sexuality? How long does it take? Is female-to-male transgender David in this article mentally ill?

3)      Is coming out easier in America than in Vietnam? How?

2.       “Teaching Justice and Living Peace: Body, Sexuality, and Religious Education in Asian American Communities” by Boyung Lee

Teaching Children about how Homosexuality is against God

I agree with Lee about Asian American religious education. It must include sexuality and sexual identity. In Asian cultures, there’s almost no such thing as coming out especially in Asian Buddhist families. Not only that it is against most of the religion in Asian culture. In America, many parents teach their kids to hate LGBT community because of their religion. They believe it is a sin in their religion. I never once heard of that until I came to America. I was stunned that some parents teach their kids to hate other people. Not only that young girls in Asian families are taught to be obedient to men and must remain a virgin until marriage. Parents shouldn’t teach their kids how to be racist and oppress women. Because of all this, some women even go through hymen restoration surgery to please their families and their husband’s family.

Questions:

1)      If Asians people come out, will they be punished by their God?

2)      In Asian families, if a child come out to his/her parents, how will the parents deal with this kind of situation?