This was the
only phrase I knew how to say when I first immigrated to America. When I was
just 10, my family and I left everything behind in Cambodia and moved to start
a new life in the United States. Upon arriving, it didn’t take long for me to
notice that I was different. Existing intersectionality as a queer Southeast
Asian immigrant often left me with no choice but to stood out among my peers.
Living authentically unfortunately meant that I would be the target of
bullying.
Four years
ago, walking through the hallways of my high school, I would get constantly
teased for being queer. However, at the time, I didn’t entirely know what it
meant to be “queer.”
But since I
was constantly getting harassed about it, I figured it must be something bad.
That’s when the fear of being queer became rooted into my mind. In my
homogenous traditional Asian upbringing, queerness was always such a taboo
topic within my family. Not having any background knowlege about the LGBTQ
community led me to become shameful of myself and my identity. Being teased,
feared, and viewed differently by others caused a growth in self-hatred. This,
combined with the lack of support I’ve received from educators, created an
atmosphere in school where I was afraid to be authentically myself and express
my true identity.
It’s important
to recognize that I entered high school with the privilege of having been
assigned a binary sex at birth, having passed as a binary gender in school, and
holding some privilege under a white supremacist, colonial order operating
through a logic of colorism and anti-Blackness. My Asian-American background
holds a substance of privilege that has saved my body from the many forms of
violence imposed on trans and nonbinary people of color and/or of Indigenous
ancestry who live at the intersection of queerphobia, erasure, and white
supremacy and ongoing (settler) colonial dispossession. These colonial powers
operated through a multifaceted, complex web continue to be embedded into the
structure of the present, tasked to perpetually hinder queerness from ever
reemerging in the future. This is why it is important that we adopt an
intersectional framework as we continue to organize for change.
We need to
examine how existing at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities of
race, gender, and queerness can position individuals in the matrix of the
oppressive layers of discrimination that deleteriously impact the way people
exist in society. Until we include this framework, we won’t have a full
template from which to build reforms and create an inclusive society that is
devoid of the discrimination and violence of the colonial present.
LGBTQ issues
are built into the tradition of our society, and as long as we turn a blind eye
to the pain of those suffering under its oppression, we will never escape those
origins.
This year’s
Spirit Day will be a critical moment reflecting our positionality in society as
we shine a light on the resilience and power of the diversity of the LGBTQ
community. To help take a stand against bullying and show support for LGBTQ
youth in schools across the nation, join the Spirit Day movement by
visiting GLAAD.org/spiritday, where
you can take the Spirit Day pledge and learn more about how you and your
community can support LGBTQ youth.
To any LGBTQ
youth who are reading this, know that you are valid and are loved by a
beautiful community. I hope to shed light on my own intersectional story that
is often erased in classrooms, GSAs, and the overall mainstream media. Stories
are our greatest learning tool, and through my story, I hope to inspire
purposeful conversations around representation, intersectionality, and
vulnerability during this year’s Spirit Day.
Darid Prom is a queer immigrant from Cambodia who has testified before
Congress, helped organize events such as Philadelphia Youth Pride and the Trans
Wellness Conference, and advised GLSEN on national campaigns. This year he was
named to GLAAD’s 20 Under 20 list, honoring young LGBTQ+ people who are
accelerating acceptance.
SOURCE: ADVOCATE
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