ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author, Vietnamese-American college student, expresses that being queer and Vietnamese is complicated. She is a genderqueer and fluctuates in her gender presentation, ranging from feminine to androgynous. Pearl has noticed while navigating through Asian-American communities that Asian-American people don’t really get the trans thing—it is not very commonly encountered for them. They can understand the gay or lesbian thing but they don’t usually understand the difference between sexuality and gender identity. She found the LGBTQ community at UVA to be much more welcoming of all identities. The author discusses how she learned more about hormones and secondary sex characteristics while Quentin, her “boyfriend” through his physical transition. She says that her body just exists in a weird space of looking very feminine but still being a genderqueer or even masculine body because it is inseparable from her gender identity.
