D O N T P A N I C

I recently went to a conference for queer Asians, and one of the keynote speakers was a queer Asian woman who was adopted from Korea by a white family in the US. Her adopted parents were two white women who strongly identified as feminists and queer activists. 

They were also anti-vax. 

Because they refused to vaccinate their child, she contracted polio. Polio. After coming from Korea. An easily preventable disease. And she is now permanently disabled.

She also ended up going in and out of hospitals as a child, at various points facing sexual abuse from her white doctors. One of her most haunting quotes that I won’t forget was something along the lines of “I was raised by non-intersectional white feminists who willingly endangered the life of their young, Asian daughter and turned her over to white doctors without realizing how dangerous that is.” 

You can be gay. You can be an activist. You can be anti-racist. You can adopt children from non-white countries. But that does not absolve you of your deliberate actions or inactions that put people of color - children of color - in danger. 

Maybe you’re anti-vax because you’ve never had to witness such diseases first hand. Maybe because some internet doctor told you it’s better to let your body’s “natural immune system” work. But you do not get to play innocent when your direct (in)actions endanger the lives of people of color. 

I recently went to a conference for queer Asians, and one of the keynote speakers was a queer Asian woman who was adopted from Korea by a white family in the US. Her adopted parents were two white women who strongly identified as feminists and queer activists. 

They were also anti-vax. 

Because they refused to vaccinate their child, she contracted polio. Polio. After coming from Korea. An easily preventable disease. And she is now permanently disabled.

She also ended up going in and out of hospitals as a child, at various points facing sexual abuse from her white doctors. One of her most haunting quotes that I won’t forget was something along the lines of “I was raised by non-intersectional white feminists who willingly endangered the life of their young, Asian daughter and turned her over to white doctors without realizing how dangerous that is.” 

You can be gay. You can be an activist. You can be anti-racist. You can adopt children from non-white countries. But that does not absolve you of your deliberate actions or inactions that put people of color - children of color - in danger. 

Maybe you’re anti-vax because you’ve never had to witness such diseases first hand. Maybe because some internet doctor told you it’s better to let your body’s “natural immune system” work. But you do not get to play innocent when your direct (in)actions endanger the lives of people of color. 

Kaye Blegvad

I recently went to a conference for queer Asians, and one of the keynote speakers was a queer Asian woman who was adopted from Korea by a white family in the US. Her adopted parents were two white women who strongly identified as feminists and queer activists. 

They were also anti-vax. 

Because they refused to vaccinate their child, she contracted polio. Polio. After coming from Korea. An easily preventable disease. And she is now permanently disabled.

She also ended up going in and out of hospitals as a child, at various points facing sexual abuse from her white doctors. One of her most haunting quotes that I won’t forget was something along the lines of “I was raised by non-intersectional white feminists who willingly endangered the life of their young, Asian daughter and turned her over to white doctors without realizing how dangerous that is.” 

You can be gay. You can be an activist. You can be anti-racist. You can adopt children from non-white countries. But that does not absolve you of your deliberate actions or inactions that put people of color - children of color - in danger. 

Maybe you’re anti-vax because you’ve never had to witness such diseases first hand. Maybe because some internet doctor told you it’s better to let your body’s “natural immune system” work. But you do not get to play innocent when your direct (in)actions endanger the lives of people of color. 

“La Mère”