Photo Credit: Summer Luk

Summer Luk, GLAAD’s Transgender Media intern, recently released a lyric video to her original song “I Am A Girl.”  Directed by Laura Camarena, the video features a diverse group of transgender people holding signs with the lyrics to the song. In the description for the video Luk says, “The lyric video explores the performative nature of gender, the difficulties of navigating the legal system and finding a place where transgender people are protected as citizens against prejudice, discrimination and hate-motivated violence. By including transgender people who are of different races, ages, faiths, and stages in their transition this video showcases the huge spectrum that exists within the community.”

During her time at GLAAD, Luk has written two articles for The Huffington Post.  Her first article is a story about how she found her voice. Despite coming from a very conservative family in Hong Kong and being forced to attend a Christian university that was not LGBT friendly, Summer found her footing in doing advocacy work. She connected with her local LGBT community and GLAAD, where she dedicated her efforts in raising awareness and fighting for equality for the community. Even though there was a risk in publicly disclosing her identity as a transgender woman at her school, she was a vocal advocate and co-hosted a panel with Adam Ackley, a transgender theology professor, about the importance of creating an inclusive and supportive space for all.

In her second Huffington Post article she shares more about her journey to womanhood since leaving Los Angeles and moving across country to attend New York University. Summer’s love of music is an important part of her life, and she uses it to invite her audience to see the world through her personal perspective as an Asian transgender woman. And though her experience is unique, the struggle to find one’s own self worth is all too common. Check out Summer’s “I Am A Girl” music video below. And for more information, check out her music page on Facebook.