Coming Out To My Parents
It’s tough for me to continuously lie to my parents that I will marry a girl. My principle is — I would rather be honest with someone so that I don’t have any issues with them.
It’s tough for me to continuously lie to my parents that I will marry a girl. My principle is — I would rather be honest with someone so that I don’t have any issues with them.
Nothing is better than this meme at capturing my response to a deceptively simple question – are you out (of the closet)?
As someone who is gay and Muslim in Singapore, it is difficult to be out and proud.
Despite countless attempts to step out of the closet, there is always this magnetic force pulling me back in.
Dear 17-year-old self,
You might be feeling so confused, lonely and angry with who you are now because you feel so different from others. You are afraid of having “that feeling” for girls. This is because Thai society tells you that queer love is “unfaithful” and “just a phase”.
Never have I imagined in my entire life that I would be a woman today; I thought it was impossible! I felt empty throughout my life—a lost soul; a living corpse with no fun in life. Sometimes, I felt that I wanted to close my eyes and not wake up. I felt this way since I was four years old. That was when I had tried my mum’s bra and heels, to her dismay.
“Can you pick someone else who is ‘normal’?” said a conservative teacher to another who was going to select me as the winner of the 2014 costume contest at my middle school.
I came out to my mom when I was 23. I showed her a picture of a girl I was dating who could pass off as a male at times. She exclaimed “He’s short, but pretty good looking,” and jokingly, I replied “She’s cute, right?” Her eyes grew wide, and I could almost hear her heart rate as it skyrocketed.