“Sometimes some workers only wanted to do one job; they weren’t scheduled for work again. I had to learn a lot of new things so I wouldn’t be sent home.” 

“Whenever her mom visited, I was her roommate. We rearranged rooms and pretended like we were roommates. I don’t think anybody actually believed us.”

“You have the right to feel real feminine one day, and not so feminine the next day, somewhere in between—fluid. However you feel like expressing yourself or how you feel about yourself, that's true in that moment. “

“It was actually impossible to grapple with my queerness and ‘Koreanness’ at the same time because I had never seen them coexist in the same room and accept each other.”

“I wanted to run out when they yelled at me or mistreated me. But one bears these things because they need to work, earn money, and pay rent — for survival, one has to grit their teeth and bear the mistreatment that comes their way.”

“Part of my transgender journey is an act of defiance, just by me being so different from the so-called norm. That's one small way I can make a difference in a person's life or [in a] group of people — just to be unafraid of being different.”

“My son, who I love, is a very healthy and very good boy. Why should I be ashamed of him, just for being gay?”

“I love that I can create tons of space where there is an acknowledgment and celebration of the multicultural nature that has become Koreatown.”