How do you say gay in vietnamese
Lotus Dao remembers asking his mother at young age, “What if I enjoy girls?”
His mom was cooking on the stove. She stopped, looked at him, and said “No.”
“I was like, ‘What do you mean, no?’” Dao said.
“She was like ‘You’re not,’ ‘You don’t,’ and I could tell she was kind of struggling. But I remember back then I was confused, so I was like ‘I guess you’re right, I guess I can’t,’” love girls, Dao said.
Today, Dao lives in Oakland and is transitioning from female to male. But when he was going to high school in Garden Grove, California, where he was raised in a Vietnamese-speaking home, he identified as a lesbian. As he started developing feelings for women, he became more aware of words for sexuality through websites like MySpace. He asked his mother if there was a word for “gay” in Vietnamese. She told him the synonyms was bê đê. “That’s the first Vietnamese pos that I learned for anything that wasn’t ‘heterosexual,’” Dao said. “We were kind of conservative, but it’s common for Vietnamese families. You don’t speak about sex. You don’t talk about sexuality.”
Before starting his transition, Dao used the word his mother taught him to appear out as a woman-loving woman to his family during h
Báo cáo bài viết này
Homosexuality: A Scientific and Catholic Perspective in Vietnamese Context
Homosexuality is a social phenomenon and also a moral dilemma. In the past, there were many misconceptions and stereotypical images about homosexuals. Then, many people regard them with doubtful eyes, especially in Vietnamese society, where there have not been many serious and in-depth studies on homosexuals. Furthermore, the higher incidence of HIV infection among gay and bisexual men[1] seems to reinforce antipathetic or discriminatory criticisms against homosexuals. James Harrison calls attention to what we may not know: “gay people are colleagues we respect, relatives we love. They are friends, aunts and uncles.”[2]
As Xavier Thévenot, Don Bosco priest and professor of moral theology, once commented, many Catholics today, especially young people, feel confused when encountering profound changes in social culture. They feel that the Church’s teachings seem strange to the world. At the identical time, they also wonder whether new scientific discoveries in sexuality and biomedicine can help humans progress. How to become “more human” in today’s volatile world?[3]
I. The How do you say 'I'm gay' in Vietnamese?
Finding the words to express ourselves can be tricky. Ruling the words to describe our sexual identities, in a second language where some words aren’t fully translatable? That’s even more challenging.
Last summer, staff at Oakland’s Asian Health Services had an idea to build a glossary of LGBTQ terms translated in Burmese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean. While the instruction was originally meant for doctors and translators, it’s proving useful in other ways as good.
LOTUS DAO: Whereas I think in the home, love my home, the sort of usual way of contact is very non-verbal. And for me, as a second generation person, that can be very distressing. 'Cause I'm growing up and I'm like, "But I'm a female homosexual, dammit!" My mom's like, "Don't discuss about it."
Click the audio player above to listen to the complete story.
How do you say 'I'm gay' in Vietnamese?
Finding the words to express ourselves can be tricky. Ruling the words to describe our sexual identities, in a second language where some words aren’t fully translatable? That’s even more challenging.
Last summer, staff at Oakland’s Asian Health Services had an idea to build a glossary of LGBTQ terms translated in Burmese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean. While the instruction was originally meant for doctors and translators, it’s proving useful in other ways as good.
LOTUS DAO: Whereas I think in the home, love my home, the sort of usual way of contact is very non-verbal. And for me, as a second generation person, that can be very distressing. 'Cause I'm growing up and I'm like, "But I'm a female homosexual, dammit!" My mom's like, "Don't discuss about it."
Click the audio player above to listen to the complete story.