Cheryl Chow calls life in closet a ‘waste’
Aug 22, 2012, 5:48 AM | Updated: 10:42 am
Former Seattle City Councilmember Cheryl Chow recently disclosed her sexuality after learning she has terminal brain cancer. (Photo courtesy Cheryl Chow)
(Photo courtesy Cheryl Chow)
Cheryl Chow has a legacy of service to Seattle. But the former teacher, principal, Seattle City Council member and School Board member says the past 60 years have been a waste because she couldn’t come out as a gay woman.
“Parents and kids, don’t be afraid of saying that you’re gay. I was afraid for over 60 years and those 60 years were wasted,” she told KING 5 .
Now, the local leader says she has brain cancer and doesn’t have much time left, so she wants others to know it’s OK to be open about their sexuality.
Chow, 66, said she feared the reaction of the Chinese community and her mother, restaurateur and King County Councilmember, Ruby Chow, whom she wanted to please.
In addition to all of her other public service, she also coached the Seattle Chinese Community Girls Drill team.
Last month on the drill team’s 60th Anniversary, she told the team about herself and her partner, school Assistant Principal Sarah Morningstar.
“I wanted them to feel good about themselves and I wanted them to have a role model that wasn’t afraid to say anymore ‘I’m gay and that’s OK’,” she said.
Chow says she no longer fears criticism from the close knit Chinese community. “No, they can’t do anything to me now. What are they going to do, kill me?”
Chow recently became a second adoptive parent with her partner, who she’s been with for 10 years.
Chow says they began running marathons because training was a way for them to be together in public. Now, she calls her disclosure a final “crusade.”
“If I can save one child from feeling bad or even committing suicide because they felt terrible because they were gay, then I would have succeeded in my last crusade,” said Chow.
KIRO Radio’s Tom Tangney says while it’s “great” Chow now feels comfortable coming out, it’s sad she had to wait so long to do it.
“I really think we’re in such a different world than the world she basically lived her entire life in. Her life is not a waste. If you really think at her age your life has been wasted because you couldn’t come out, that is sad.”
