5/18 Sandip Roy + Kelly Loves Tony


In Sandip Roy’s “Mobile Cultures”, Roy mentions how invisible the LGBTQ community is in South Asia versus the United States, where people are more open to the idea of same-sex marriage/relationships. As shown in the internet searches of the word "gay", the U.S. search engine popped up about seven million, while South Asia popped up only 360,000 searches. Such terms like gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer are terms based on American culture, which does not translate to queer folks in other cultures. Many of the 1st generation folks, including my parents, believe that homosexuality can be cured, but this notion is overly exaggerated by society and the media. People actually believe homosexuality can be cured. Some parents send their son(s) to a gay conversion camp, where individuals were forced to intercourse. No one really changed their sexuality because of that. There’s nothing wrong in being gay. It’s who an individual is. The reading also mentioned how South Asia queer individuals were able to be seen by the public after the rapid growth of the internet came to place. This reading really opened my eye in being an ally to the LGBTQ community. I should not be standing by and doing nothing when individuals are being attacked for being who they are. It also taught me to connect with others and to spread awareness of homophobia. 

In Kelly Loves Tony, the film connects so much to Shah's article of how Laotian girls want to reach for better education goals than get married early on. Even though Kelly got pregnant after being with Tony for 3 months, she still thought of her own future. She went back to school after giving birth to Andrew. Even though, Tony didn't understand why she wanted to go back. She wanted to do it for herself and for Andrew's future sake. This is also a form of resistance that Kelly did because she did not want to be a stay-at-home mom, but a successful and edcuated young mother. There was this scene where Kelly found out that she was engaged to Tony right after she gave birth to Andrew. This connects to what Shah talked about in her article of Laotian girls, of one of the cultural practices is to get married to the guy who impregnated you. Another part of the film shows Tony struggling to stay in the U.S. because of his criminal record. Tony's situation is exactly like the 'school-to-prison pipeline.' Tony did not do well in his studies, so he dropped out and went back to the same neighborhood of violence. In turn, this lead to Tony committing crimes like auto burglary, robbery, and possession of firearm. 

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