I've never been much for autobiographical writing. I'd much rather talk about my activism and advocacy work than myself. Most of writing to date has been focused on my advocacy work through the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA) and other transgender-specific and LGBT organizations. And most my speaking engagements have focused on my work on behalf of the transgender community and LGBT/queer people of color (especially Asians/Pacific Islanders).

So I hesitated a bit when my friends Patty and Jinky asked me to submit an autobiographical essay for an anthology they were putting together. I met them for lunch when I was out in California for Creating Change (the annual conference of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force), which held its 2005 meeting in Oakland in November of that year. Somewhat reluctantly, I agreed, and the result was "Homeward Bound: The Journey of a Transgendered Korean Adoptee," my first extended foray into the world of autobiographical writing. The essay was one of 60 contributions selected from over 600 submissions to Homelands: Women's Journeys Across Race, Place, and Time, an anthology edited by Patricia Justine Tumang and Jenesha de Rivera, published by Seal Press earlier this year.