Hmong

Ua Kev Zoo Siab Txais LGBTQ

The story behind the word:

If you didn't know, the Twin Cities, particularly St Paul, has a notable Hmong population. There are some great stories out there including this book. Also, I recommend a trip to HmongTown Marketplace if you find yourself in St Paul.

For this word, I found myself chatting with professor and Director of the Hmong Language Program at the University of Minnesota, Bee Vang-Mougiaxeng. Bee didn't have the word off the top of her head so she reached out to other friends to help track down the expression you see above. Of note in our conversation, I mentioned using a Google Translate term as a place holder. Here's our email text below:

"the term you shared cannot be used and should not be considered at all. It is a mistranslation of what "pride" means in general (not in the sense of LGBTQ+) and then when using it in LGBTQ+ is even worst. "Kev Khab Theeb" literally translates to cockiness. LOL. But - do not feel bad. Working with language is a hard task but very fun as well. I will converse with my colleagues in this community and use my language skills to help come up with the best term."


Ultimately, I was given the term above which roughly translates to "celebrating welcoming LGBTQ."