During my reading of the article on Hmong LGBT, my initial
reaction is that the scholar is not dissecting any issues and just quoting the
participants. I feel that the author wasn’t really doing his/her job; instead
the participants did all of the analysis.
I guess one reason for this is because the topic is so new that the
people who experienced it themselves are the ones who are guiding and doing the
research. In addition to this article, I want to add gender roles and adulthood
into Hmong LGBT issues. In the Hmong culture, masculinity and femininity are
tied to marriage. You are not masculine if you do not marry a woman and have
kids; and you are not feminine if you don’t have children. Furthermore, you are
only considered an adult when you are married with kids. If anyone, whether
gay, lesbian, or trans, break these additional lines, they will be ostracized.
A pattern I see with the Hmong and Vietnamese article is the
structure of family and community. Because both culture revolve around
immediate and extended family structures so much, it becomes an additional
social control to keep people in check. They are not only afraid of the
consequences given to them, but of the stigma that falls on their immediate and
extended family members. Also, the ethnic community is tightly knitted meaning
that one’s coming out has far reaching ramifications for all of one’s family
and oneself. Lastly, I find interesting that the Vietnamese created a new term
to describe the new identity. Its historical evolution is very insightful. The
Hmong language does not have a uniquely native term for such identification. My
question is, how does foreign language evolve within the USA to address 21st
century issues? Do they create new words and if they do, how? Or do they just
adopt American terminology?
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