Hi Guys! I ́m Jenna Speer, I'm 32 and since I was a little girl I wanted to travel all over the world, so I became a travel blogger...I anticipated flings here and there, though I never thought possible I could fall in love of real in one of those trips. I ́ll tell you the story of how I met my fiancé. It was 2014 and I was traveling through several Asian countries, I truly recommend to anyone to visit Asia, so many places with interesting cultures and nice people. If you love food, especially seafood, you really must go to Japan, but if you ́re not a fan you´ll have other interesting options, they ́re more than 50 kinds of ramen. There is one for everybody. There’s ramen for people who hate ramen! I’m not a fan of those people.
After a month visiting Japan, South Korea, and China I decided to take a trip to South Asia. You know, see Malaysia, The Philippines, and Thailand. In September of 2014 I arrived to Bangkok, the city that witnessed how I fell in love.
Although they are all countries on the same continent you can notice easily the difference between them. That's something unique in Asia and it's something really hard to see in Europe or Latin America, which feel more like the same. South Asia is way more open-minded than the rest of the countries near them.
Being there meant certainly a cultural impact for me...even when I see myself as the open-minded person of the family… I'll explain it better. I ́m from Topeka, Kansas. It's kind of a city, I mean, it's bigger than any town from Kansas, yet it's much smaller than San Francisco, L.A., Houston or even Kansas City. It’s a semi-city. We have a few malls and that... Not a lot of interesting things happen in Topeka.
My family is very religious They enrolled me in a Catholic private school at a very young age, they wanted me to learn all the dogmas of the religion, and that was good, I guess. It was alright. I don't consider myself a religious person, but I don't see it like something bad even when I just don't agree with several of its doctrines. For starters, I’m a lesbian. I had a bunch of fights with my family earlier in life and eventually they ended up accepting me. I still think most times religion is great for the community.
So… I was very surprised by many things in the Philippines and Thailand. The people of the LGBT community in those countries can live with much more freedom than in other places. It´s something really normal and you rarely see sexual discrimination, it exists, of course..just not as much as in America. What was even more impressing was the fact in the 90´s it was illegal to be gay… Literally illegal, so yeah, they advanced pretty fast. Points for Thailand!
After a while in Bangkok, I noticed that the people there liked to party. A lot. Lot’s of partying. I wanted to be part of the culture for a bit and I asked one of the hotel's employees where could I find a nice place, club, anything to party. The club ́s name was “The White Tulip”sounds fancy right?
I entered the club and saw the most beautiful girl on the planet, it was love at first sight. I was a bit afraid of talking to her, yet after a drink I felt confident enough. We started talking. Thank god she knew how to speak English with the hottest accent and it seemed that she liked me too. That's how we met.
Her name is Mary Boonyasak. She has long black hair, beautiful brown eyes and a smile that would make anyone fell for her. I stayed in Thailand for more time than I expected just for her. Then, I asked her to move with me to the states and she agreed.
But after a year together, she confessed to me that she wasn ́t born as a girl… Mary is a transgender woman. She used to be Gan, a Thai name meaning “the bold one”, though I know you’re not supposed to do that, she gave me permission to say her past name. It was a bit shocking at first, I thought she was messing with me, but she was serious. To be honest I didn't care, we already had a year together and that wouldn't change all the great memories we made together. I love her.
A few months ago I asked Mary to marry me, she said yes, we ́re gonna do it next December in Amsterdam, cause we love Holland and we don't want any legal problem. We´re really really really excited about it, the only thing that concerns me a little is telling my family that she is a transgender woman. They had a HARD time accepting me as a lesbian. They’ve met past girlfriends before, yet this time it feels different and I have no idea how they might react.
I need to tell them, there is no reason to hide it. It is completely okay to be transgender. I'm sure that they ́ will freak out, and maybe they oppose to the wedding...I don't ́t care. Mary and I have plans to move to Argentina… Really far from our homes, we ́ll have a fresh start. We'll be ok, we just need each other.
What do you think? Would you not tell them?
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