Sean Lee
Sean Lee: The Pride Moment
Sean was born and raised in Toronto. Always the friendly-chatty type, Sean found his niche working in sales at Nordstrom. He enjoys the challenge and is always eager to use his caring personality to help customers find what they’re looking for.
Sean came out as gay when he was 18 years old.
Did he always know he was gay? No, it was during high school and a deep-rooted friendship where he realized he might be gay. It was a stark realization that left Sean panicked and confused. What would his family say? They already had a preconceived conception of their son and a mapped out future of what his life would look like. Little by little, Sean decided to drop hints about his sexual orientation. In the end, his mother confronted him and it was almost a relief of not having to be the one to start that conversation. His mother took the news very hard initially. She was very broken up and confused as both she and Sean’s sister had not had any inkling of Sean being gay until that point.
Although Sean’s mother is now accepting of his sexual orientation, Korean culture is still relatively unaccepting of the LGBTQ community and it is this old, traditional framework that needs to be reframed. In Sean’s case, his mother had to learn the ropes of a whole new world. Sean still has not disclosed to his grandparents. There are a set of ideals that are still not yet in sync with Canadian society although much progress has been made in the past few years.
Is some part of you angry and or insulted by this misguided framework in the Korean community? Not at all. Sean understands why change is difficult especially for the older Korean generation. He understands that many if not all families have preconceived ideas of their children and the outcome of their love interests. If something does not match up to these ideals, it can be quite confusing and frightening. Society as a whole and not just the Korean community needs to work on erasing biases and work on becoming a more inclusive society. It is hard to understand why there are acts of discrimination against the LGBTQ community. Everyone should be free to love who they love – why does my choice in partner bother the person next to me? It shouldn’t. With that being said, in today’s world, especially in Canada, people have generally become more inclusive. Perhaps we can owe to raised awareness or a more education population; however it is still always a working progress.
Sean and Waymond have been together for almost 5 years. Waymond is loving, caring, considerate and occasionally sarcastic. Sometimes Sean can’t tell if Waymond is telling a joke or making a serious comment and vows that one day he won’t fall for Waymond’s jokes.
Thoughts about Canada turning 150? Canada is doing very well with inclusivity thus far. The bottom line is that everyone needs to be more loving; they need to be more considerate. Don’t leave anyone out – this is when the problems start to form. There’s no time to be close-minded and hateful, it gets lonely very quickly.