More than simply an exercise in multimedia documentation, this project aims to recognize the visibility of contemporary queer Vietnamese American identity in Seattle and to raise question about equality. In the 21^st century, gays, lesbians, bisexual women, and transgender (LGBT) individuals deserve their rights as equal as heterosexual inhabitants in ethnic Vietnamese-American communities as well as in the mainstream society in the sense of equality and fairness.

My website demonstrates how many LGBTQ individuals are excluded from the mainstream Vietnamese-American culture and struggle with racism as they seek visibility in the dominant society. This site also examines how many young queer Vietnamese-Americans give voice to Vietnamese-American minorities asking for equality and homophobia to be further eliminated within the ethnic Vietnamese-American community in Seattle. By feeling isolated and lost, most queer Vietnamese-Americans need a safe place where they can meet others like themselves in order to share their sentiment. In criticizing a narrow democratic practice of the dominant U.S. culture that discriminates against queer desires, Mini Nguyen, a queer Vietnamese-American refugee argues:

The staging of forbidden feelings of queer desire, critical rage, or democratic disappointment is a critical counterpoint to the naturalization of hierarchies of “right” feelings, “right” ways of being. The violence of national normativity that is, among other things, gendered and sexualized, is here laid bare like a lover’s deception, or a state’s violence against its subjects. (Nguyen 1).

Homophobia must be taken seriously as its effects can be extremely challenging. I hope that my cyber-community building space about Seattle will express the need to open unlimited discussions concerning gender, sexual orientation, and queer behaviors among Vietnamese-American members in the Seattle community.

Thanks for visiting!