The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) Kaohsiung Branch Office deputy director Jason Chue (楚杰生) on Tuesday appeared in a video sharing his experiences as an openly gay man, urging lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people to love and be honest with themselves.
The video was produced by gay community news outlet GagaTai and was posted on the AIT’s official Facebook page.
In the interview, Chue said he knew that he was gay since elementary school and that he was destined to follow a different path from others.
Chue said he told his parents about his sexual orientation in high school, adding their initial reaction was confusion.
“‘Is this an illness? Is there something wrong that I can change?’ they asked,” Chue said.
Chue said his parents sent him to a psychologist who said that he was a “well-adjusted youth who happens to be gay.”
Asked how he responds when questioned about his marital status, Chue said that he tells people: “I’m single, I’m a gay man. Yeah, if you know anyone, let me know,” adding that he considers such questions an opportunity to educate others about diversity in society.
Chue said he hopes to let others know that not everyone will get married to someone of the opposite sex, adding that he is always honest with himself.
He said that confidence and being at ease with one’s identity grows with age, adding that at 40 he has had many years of experience through which he can better understand himself.
Recalling his own struggles with coming out of the closet, Chue called on LGBTI people to “be strong and love yourself, because no one else will do that for you. To be lesbian, gay, transgender, intersex is just a part of who you are, who we are.”
In Mandarin, he said: “People are people, love is love. It is as simple as that.”
Chue was born and raised in New York. He has an undergraduate degree in psychology and language studies and a doctorate in law. Before joining the US Department of State, Chue worked as a lawyer specializing in commercial law. He speaks Mandarin, Spanish, Turkish, Portuguese, French and German.
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