Week 9 Alaina Cagalingan

In the article “Notes on Queer ‘N’ Asian Virtual Sex,” author Daniel Tsang discusses about the difference between sexuality online and in real life in Asian-American populations.  This article reflects that the internet can play a determinant role in one’s sexuality and acceptance of themselves.  This is understandable since it is very easy to tell the truth (or lie as well) online about your personal information, including sexuality, which sometimes can come very difficult to accept in other cultures.  In fact, it is quite true that most Asians tend to have more difficulties coming out largely because of their culture and religion.  From my personal experience, growing up in the Philippines made me sort of homophobic and felt embarrassed for those of my classmates who came out to be gay/bisexual.  It seems to me that sexuality is often not talked about and is a taboo topic.  However, when I came here in the US, it all changed.  The first friends I made from high school were gay/bisexual.  This deliberately changed my perception of the once taboo topic of sexuality.  In fact, the environment has caused me to change as well.  Living in San Francisco became sort of a vehicle to understanding sexuality among many other things.  The city is liberal, colorful, and very eventful with so many subcultures within the population.  Everyone, including the marginalized Asian-Americans, are very well-represented, as I would consider.  This changes in my environment have helped me understand that sexuality is part of who we are, and suppressing such identity is a misnomer.  I am glad to have an opportunity to learn about sexuality through my friends’ experiences and my surroundings.  This allowed me to become more open to many other concepts that are often restricted by my culture.  
Photo reference: http://changingattitude.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/The-Philippines1.jpg
Work reference: Daniel Tsang. Notes on QUeer 'N' Asian Virtual Sex."