Optimistic Soap

I’ve received a lot of comments and DMs over the years from younger Asian people thanking me for being loud about my love of the q***r community. It carries something special coming from someone with a face like mine.

Coming out for Asians may be extra hard. In so many of our cultures, family and individual identity are deeply intertwined; your life belongs, in some ways, to the generations that sacrificed to make it possible. That can make being q***r feel less like a personal revelation and more like a betrayal of your family. Like you’re failing people who gave up everything for you.

That feeling is real. I’m not dismissing it.

But i want you to know this: your worth is not measured by your family’s ability to understand you. Their struggle to accept you is theirs — it comes from culture, from history, from fear — and it says nothing about whether you deserve to be loved exactly as you are.

You do. You absolutely deserve all the love.

And you are not alone in this community. Save this and come back to the comments, because we, we’re here for you. I’ve seen it happen over and over again.

I love you. I’m proud of you. You belong here and in all the places.