Law Siu Fung

Hong Kong Gender Fluid Advocate

"Don't think that you are the weirdest person out there. There are always people in this world who are weirder than you. You are not alone."

In secondary school, I thought I liked girls, so I thought I was lesbian. But it didn't feel completely accurate. I still had so many questions. Later, I found myself also liking men, but I didn't want them to be attracted to me as a woman. For a while, I imagined myself as a gay man.

It wasn't until I studied gender studies in university that I heard a professor use the term "transgender". Something clicked in me. I went to the library and borrowed all the books I could find about the topic. When I came out to my professor, he suggested that I share my experience of finding my gender identity in class.

At the time, all the transgender stories we had were from foreigners - most of them were transwomen and very few transmen. I shared my story as a Hongkonger, a student, and a transgender person. In that moment, I felt something shift - it was the first time I spoke my truth.

Since that moment, I have accepted speaking invitations from any group who wants to hear a transgender person's story. I also worked to improve my public speaking and storytelling skills. If I am the first transgender person someone has ever met, I want to make sure that I speak clearly so that they can gain a better understanding of gender identity.

In 2015, I began to compete in bodybuilding. Because I was legally considered a female, I had to compete in the female category. Female participants are required to wear bikinis in the competitions, but it's something that I had never gotten used to. Even when I was younger, I didn't like wearing bras - it made me feel like a man in women's clothing. One time, I interviewed a transgender person for a research report. When I met him/her, I couldn't tell whether he/she was a transman or transwoman. At that moment, I realised that I had been asking people not to define others by their gender, but by trying to assign a label to this person, wasn't I doing the same?

I had to overcome my own stereotypes about gender. In bodybuilding competitions, I am intentional about wearing my bikinis and looking my best. Why can't men wear bikinis? Gender is simply a social construct. Later, I learned about the term 'genderfluid', a term for people who don't identify themselves within the gender binary. I now identify as genderfluid - for me, that means biologically female and socially male. I've also shifted from being a transgender advocate to an advocate for gender diversity and fluidity.