Living Between Worlds: Queerness and Asian Community Contexts
A meaningful conversation about mental health in the Asian community
by Daniela Ho Tan
During Pride Month and Refugee Week, Project HoriZen hosted Living Between Worlds: Queerness and Asian Community Contexts, a free online community conversation exploring the intersections of sexuality, culture, family, migration, mental health and belonging. Through donations from attendees, we fundraised $210 for Twenty10– a NSW-based LGBTIQA+ youth service.
Project HoriZen founder Daniela Ho Tan was joined by two thoughtful and generous speakers, Eddy Hua and Dr Nasreen Yasin, both queer Asian clinical psychologists, for a candid conversation about what it can mean to navigate multiple worlds at once.
The session created space to reflect on questions that are often deeply personal and complex: What does authenticity look like when different parts of ourselves are welcomed in some spaces, but not others? How do family, culture and generational expectations shape conversations about sexuality? And what does safety mean when it can shift depending on relationship, context and time?
At the beginning of the session, attendees were invited to share their reflections through a Menti poll. This is the visual depiction of what our attendees shared when asked what words came to mind when hearing the phrase “living between worlds”:
These responses captured the emotional complexity of holding multiple identities at once. For some, living between worlds reflected strength, adaptability and diversity. For others, it brought up feelings of disconnection, fear of rejection, hiding, or not fully belonging.
The poll also showed that conversations about sexuality in family or cultural contexts were rarely experienced as “easy and open”. Instead, attendees most commonly described them as complicated, risky, different across generations and, at times, unspoken.
When asked what brought them to the session, many attendees named personal reflection, clinical or professional learning, community connection, allyship, curiosity, and supporting someone they care about.
Together, these responses reflected the heart of the event: people were not coming for simple answers, but for a space where complexity could be held with care.
What the Conversation Revealed
A central theme that emerged was that authenticity is not fixed. What it means to “be yourself” can evolve over time, across relationships, and across different community spaces. For many people navigating queerness and Asian family or cultural contexts, authenticity is not always about disclosure or visibility in every setting. Sometimes it is about discernment, safety, self-protection, and slowly building spaces where more of the self can be known.
The discussion also explored the pain of exclusion from family and community, and how this can carry deep emotional weight. These experiences are not just individual moments of rejection or misunderstanding. They can bring up grief, injustice, anger, sadness, fear, and longing, especially when the underlying reason is at the basis of humanity: to be loved, accepted and connected.
Eddy and Nasreen spoke to the importance of approaching these conversations with curiosity. Rather than assuming there is one right way to navigate culture, family or identity, the discussion invited us to ask: What does this mean to this person? What has it cost them? What has helped them survive? What might safety look like in this particular relationship or generation?
A powerful reminder from the event was that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Safety depends on context. It depends on family history, culture, generation, language, migration, relationship dynamics, and the supports available around someone. For clinicians, allies and community members, this means moving away from simplistic ideas of “coming out”, “being authentic”, or “standing up for yourself”, and instead making room for the many ways people navigate belonging, protection and connection, including who you want to “invite in”.
Messages to the Younger Self
Towards the end of the session, Eddy and Nasreen were asked what they would say to their younger selves from 10 years ago. Both shared beautiful messages”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself about where you’re at. There’s no way you could have all the answers right now. Having the tools, resources, and skills to navigate these worlds came over time. Having the freedom of being an adult, having safe spaces, engaging with the right people, having professional training along the way is what helped me find my way forward.” – Eddy Hua
“Be your beautiful self and never apologise for being different. I know things are tough and scary right now, but I am here for you, holding your hands through this. I want you to know that I am so proud of you. I love you and I will always love you for who you are.”
– Dr Nasreen Yasin
These reflections were a moving reminder of how much tenderness can be found when we look back at younger versions of ourselves, especially the parts that were scared, hidden, confused or trying so hard to belong.
Why these Conversations Matter
Living Between Worlds was not about finding one answer to the complexities and nuances of navigating queerness, Asian identity, family and mental health. It was about creating a space where these experiences could be spoken about with nuance, compassion and honesty.
I am deeply grateful to both Eddy and Nasreen for their openness, wisdom and generosity, and to everyone who attended and contributed to the space with respect, vulnerability, kindness and compassion.
Hosting this conversation was incredibly heartwarming. It reminded me how much community spaces matter, especially for people who may not always feel fully safe, heard or seen across all parts of their lives. These conversations are ongoing. And perhaps that is part of what living between worlds asks of us: to keep making room for complexity, connection and the many ways people find their way home to themselves.
