Hypatia vol. X, no. X (XXX 2017) © by Hypatia, Inc.
A Call for Healing: Transphobia,
Homophobia, and Historical Trauma in
Filipina/o/x American Activist
Organizations
KAREN B. HANNA
I argue that for those who migrate to other countries for economic survival and political asy-
lum, historical trauma wounds across geographical space. Using the work of David Eng and
Nadine Naber on queer and feminist diasporas, I contend that homogeneous discourses of
Filipino nationalism simplify and erase transphobia, homophobia, and heterosexism, giving rise
to intergenerational conflict and the passing-on of trauma among activists in the United
States. Focusing on Filipina/o/x American activist organizations, I center intergenerational
conflict among leaders, highlighting transphobic and homophobic struggles that commonly arise
in cisgender women majority spaces. I contextualize these struggles, linking them to traumas
inherited through legacies of colonialism, feudalism, imperialism, hetero-patriarchy, capitalism,
and white supremacy. I inquire: how does historical and personal trauma merge and shape
activist relationships and conflict, and what are activists doing to disrupt and work through
historical trauma? I advocate for a decolonizing approach for “acting out” and “working
through” trauma and healing collectively. By exploring conflict in organizations shaped by
dominant Filipino nationalist ideologies, I resist romantic notions of the diaspora. Revealing
the ways that dominant Filipino nationalism perpetuates a simultaneous erasure of nonnorma-
tive histories and bodies and epistemological and interpersonal violence among activists, I reject
homogeneous conceptions of nationalism and open up possibilities for decolonial organizing
praxis.
In her discussion of the Lakota people, Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart defines his-
torical trauma as the cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over one’s
lifetime and across generations, following loss of lives, land, and vital aspects of cul-
ture (Brave Heart 1998). I argue that for those who migrate abroad for economic sur-
vival and political asylum, historical trauma also wounds across geographical space.