R.S., Filipino: San Francisco, CA, 18

To me, being 'downe' means many different things. It means to have that strong community to turn to that can give support for the special interests you share. This isn't fetishism. This isn't subtle racism. This is justice, appreciation of heritage and yes, even a subconscious rebellion against our parents and grandparents. We are strong asian men who want to challenge the status quo. We will not glorify another race by means of stereotypes & ideas put into our heads by our parents, but instead we will thrive, culturally grow & fight the mainstream so that we are not exoticized for being something we know we aren't; some bullshit idea of the ideal submissive gaysian man often compared to the ideal of an asian sex slave or even a geisha.

J.E., Filipino: Bloomfield, NJ, 21

It was only until this summer that I found out what "DOWNE" was. There exists no such thing in the east coast. It's very big over on the west, big is an understatement, i'd say huge. haha.

A friend of mine told me being DOWNE meant being gay or bisexual on the "DOWN LOW" hush hush, dont ask dont tell kinda thing. It's very interesting to go through downelink and see all these guys as DOWNE, I find it fascinating actually.

I guess being DOWNE has a positive connotation to it, in that it doesn't label you right away as GAY. I think being GAY isn't bad, but it's a big step to say "IM GAY". I think saying Im DOWNE is a lot easier, and i also think it eases one's transition into finding oneself, in terms of their sexual orientation. I think in the END, those who are DOWNE are going to turn out GAY, or maybe it's just hyped up to be DOWNE and those who are confused get into the hype becuase they themselves dont know if they are gay or straight. that's how I feel anyways.

To say im DOWNE is kind-of empowering because it's new and exciting and not very well defined, to me it's my own definition of being a gay-straight-bi-ihavenoideawhatiam Asian male.