After I came out, my Chinese mother still loved me

When Ian was in college, he had an internship at a media company that was overwhelmingly white and straight. During lunch, the topic of dating came up and he disclosed his sexuality to his colleagues.

“It must have been really hard coming out to your mom,” one of his colleagues said. Ian knew what he was trying to say: that Ian's Chinese immigrant mother must have taken it horribly, because TV shows and movies like Crazy Rich Asians paint our parents as heartless monsters obsessed with public perception. Maybe this person assumed that Ian's mom had stopped speaking to him or disowned him as her child. Remember feeling caught off guard, Ian just went along with it: yes, It was bad.

Many other people would make similar assumptions and it began to feel as though people were hoping for a tragic story. But that is not the case for Ian.

Read Ian's full article HERE