Hoshina Seki Oral History

Hoshina Seki was born in 1941 in New York City. Her father founded the New York Buddhist Church in 1938 and Hoshina buried questions about her gender identity under the pressure to “set an example” as the minister’s son. After years of therapy, Hoshina underwent gender affirming surgery at the age of 70. To her relief, the Buddhist church and study center were accepting of her change. Hoshina rejects the mainstream transgender narrative of being “born in the wrong body”; she says, simply, “I am who I am.”

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Item Information:

Identifier: x920fx31k
Collection: Oral Histories with People of Color
Institution: OUTWORDS
Creator(s): Seki, Hoshina
Funk, Mason
Contributor(s): McCabe, Michelle
Date Created: Jan. 21, 2020
Dates Covered: circa 1950
Genre: Oral Histories
Subject(s): American Buddhist Academy
Hoshina Seki
New York Buddhist Church
Places: New York
Tokyo > Shinjuku
Kagoshima > Kagoshima Shi
Topic(s): Buddhism
Gender affirming surgery
Gender identity
HIV/AIDS
Japanese Americans
Partners of transgender people
Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941
Transgender Buddhists
Transgender parents
Transitioning (Gender)
Resource Type: Moving image
Language: English
Rights: In copyright
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