What Pride Means To Me: I’m queer and I’m Khmer
People give me a second look when I tell them I didn’t “officially” come out to my parents until I was 30-something. Honestly, if I hadn’t proposed to my girlfriend, I would’ve never had the courage to come out to my parents.
In the Cambodian community, being LGBTQ+ means something is wrong with you or your parents failed at raising you. As a result, being gay isn’t discussed.
It was bad enough I didn’t become a doctor or a lawyer, and my math skills were never up to Asian par. I didn’t want to be anymore embarrassing.
My parents are refugees who survived the Cambodian genocide by the Khmer Rogue, and they don’t even talk about that because it’s a reminder that something was wrong with our country.
Even now that I am happily married to my wife, Kathie Ny, some relatives still mention how I’m a waste to my parents because I won’t have any children. Marriages in their days were based on procreating, not love.
Follow the article at: https://qvoicenews.com/2019/06/14/lgbtq-cambodian-community-queer-khmer-activist-shares-story
