“I had thought I was going to die but I did not because of the meds.”

“Queer Asian PHAs, especially newcomers, face the additional barriers such as lack of access to resources in their native language and social isolation.”

“I try to be the strange I wanna see in this world. I feel I am very lucky to live in a time where I can be so authentically myself.”

“We can experience ostracism, judgement, hatred violence, and contempt simply for being who we are or for the work we engage in.”

“What was wrong with me? Was I some cold-hearted monster who couldn’t feel love?”

“The Ballroom scene is a place where you can be free,free,free to be you spread your wind and fly high”

“I knew since age 12 that I should have been born female and I finally got became one at age 59.”

“My parental ‘hurdle’ to overcome was the feelings and internal biases regarding the perception of the process indicative of gender discovery.”

“My wish is that one day Queer kids can share similar stories to mine and that our journeys become a normalized part of society.”

“I celebrate the beauty of human beings through my work, honoring every individual’s uniqueness and spirit. I use makeup artistry and hair styling as a vehicle for spiritual expression and freedom.”

“When our society’s politics and policies only reflect cisnormativity, we believe that is the norm.”

“I challenge Christians who are attacking the LGBTQIA2S community to think about the harms you are committing and ask yourself if that is something an all loving God would want.”

“Me and Kris like to remind the next generation that there is indeed someone out there who will look at you as the most beautiful/handsome person in the world, someone who will share with you all their friends and family, someone who will understand you and your past without holding it against you.”

“After being outed in 2013 all I heard was ‘if you want to be gay, go do it somewhere else.’ So, I did just that…”

“Now it doesn’t matter if I am too Asian or too feminine. I am comforted to know that attraction is not rigid, but expansive.”

“As an adult, I’ve come to the realization that I no longer have time to put on masks that make other people comfortable.”

“Once my egg cracked (when I realized that I was trans), it hit me so hard that it was truly a matter of life and death, of transition or die.”

“Explain to me how the vanguard of the queer movement were black and brown, trans souls, yet we ended up with cis, white homosexual impositions of queer culture.”

“My birth name is Vernon, my performer name is LOLA, my birth city is Calgary, my home is Toronto, my heritage is Filipinx, my pronouns are they/them, for now I’m non-binary, and as for tomorrow, who knows and honestly, who cares?”

“In March, I released my 1st single in over 10 years “Me For Me” from my soon to be released album (video also now out). The video depicts the struggles that we the LGBTQ+ community face when it comes to self-acceptance.”

“High school was a bit weird for me. I had my group of friends and I didn’t necessarily have a bad time, but of course I encountered problems, especially the first 2 years.”

“When I was single in the city I had this diner I would take my dates to disclose. This place had a headshot of me as my drag persona, Jade Elektra. I would point out the photo first. If the guy was uncomfortable with me doing drag, he probably was going to have a problem with my status.”

“My life journey as a cis-queer Asian settler living with HIV has been one like the lotus flower.”

“I danced with death and it taught me that I would never know what the hope that lives in tomorrow would bring.”

“I know very well what kind of love I will tolerate + what I will not. I may not always know what I want, but I do know what I don’t want + I will always keep striving for that light.”

“In this last year my journey has awakened something that had always been within. I had always refused to believe I was different in any way from the mostly white gay men that surrounded me at many of the events I went to. Though they never said it, I was different. I was not like them.”

“I am so happy, despite it taking me over 40 years, to have been able to transition and to feel happy and whole in my body.”

“‘Blossom’ not ‘Bloom’: as blossoming refers to the whole glory of blooming and not just its peak.”

“On a warm August day in 1960, at the age of five my Devout, Irish, Catholic Mother, while teaching me how to sew on a button, told me I was gay.”

“I am exactly who I was always meant to be: A queer, bi-racial, HIV+ human.”

“In my life, I have had two rebirths – at age 21 when I came out of the closet and at age 29 when I was diagnosed with HIV.”

“Entering the dance world further amplified the racism, homophobia, transphobia, femmephobia, and body policing that I was already experiencing in the gay world. Who knew the dance world and Grindr would have so much in common?”

“i don’t fit into the typical stereotypes of queer, i’m not super femm, i’m not butch, i’m not edgy or unique or anything like that”