Double Lives in America

Reading Gina Masequesmay's article "Emergence of Queen Vietnamese America" was a huge eye opener towards the LGBTQ situation in the Asian community. Heteronormativity is the idea that our society favors opposite sex relationships and everything else is considered "not normal". The idea of heteronormativity combined with many Asian American's parents to "carry on the family name" aka have grandchildren that will have the same last name. Masequesmay talks about the difficulty of many Viet-Americans having to live double lives. With their family, they must hide their true identity to avoid being shunned by the family. However, when away from family, their true identity comes out. I understand how difficult it is to live double lives. Like Masequesmay said in the article, immigrant lives are heterosexualized and traditionally gendered. When an immigrant comes out, they are often shunned by those in their native community as well as their American community. It angers me to see this happen, and I am hopeful that changes in the idea of heteronormativity in our society will be eliminated, but only time will tell. Will LGBTQ immigrants be able to, one day, come out without the fear of being shunned by their community and families?

Austin Yu

Section A01