Moving to Chicago, a place with a much more dense Filipino population, I've been relieved of feeling like an island. However, I have also struck a nerve I'm now forced to actualize. Growing up, my family's beloved living room shelf display, a collection of statuette jade buddhas, are approximately $2.99 /each at the Chinatown gift shop, neighboring other other plastic, anime paraphernalia on the…
I feel an over-enthusiastic support over my transmasculine gender by outsiders, almost infantilizing in nature. I'm a growing American boy being handed a rifle before his first hunt with his father. There is predisposition that the weapons of masculinity will affirm me. However, I was not born in the US, this "boy" is in his late 20s, and I never wanted to kill another animal. In 2024, I made a…