Joel Kim Booster: I Knew I Was Gay Before I Knew I Was Asian

Joel Kim Booster (stand-up comedian, writer, actor) opens up about bipolar disorder, his early sexual identity realizations, and the challenges of living at the intersection of a variety of cultures. He discusses the complexities of being adopted as a baby by a white American Baptist family, his tumultuous teenage years of finding himself while grappling with his deeply religious and conservative parents, and how the arts helped him with his coming out process. Joel details how his bipolar diagnosis helped him reframe his life experiences, his “productive” hypomania, the benefits of medication, and why it can be difficult to let go of mental illness. He reveals why social media has been the biggest stressor on his mental health, how the depiction of Asian men fed into his depression, and the frustration and freedom that comes with being “stereotypically gay.” Mayim breaks down the different types of bipolar disorder and how the condition manifests.