Editing Margaret Cho (section)

==Early life and education==
Cho was born in [[San Francisco]] on December 5, 1968, to a family of Korean descent.<ref name=childhood/> Her paternal grandfather Myung-sook Cho, a [[Christianity|Christian]] minister, worked for the Japanese as a station master during their [[Korea under Japanese rule|occupation of Korea]]. When Japan [[Surrender of Japan|withdrew]] from Korea at the end of World War II, he was denounced as a [[Chinilpa|traitor]] by North Korea's [[Soviet Civil Administration|Communist regime]] and forced to move with his family, including his son, Cho's father Seung-hoon Cho, to South Korea.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/fyr12.socst.us.1950pres.hurresc/a-hurried-escape/ |title=A Hurried Escape {{!}} Finding Your Roots|website=PBS Learning Media|publisher=[[Public Broadcasting System|PBS]]}}</ref> During the [[Korean War]], Myung-sook ran an orphanage in [[Seoul]]. According to Margaret herself, she "grew up in the church."<ref name=christian/> She was raised in a racially diverse neighborhood near the [[Ocean Beach, San Francisco|Ocean Beach]] section of San Francisco,<ref name=childhood>{{cite web|url=https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/02/05/grammy-nominee-margaret-cho-recalls-san-francisco-childhood/|publisher=[[KPIX-TV|CBS Local San Francisco]] |date=February 5, 2013|title=Grammy Nominee Margaret Cho Recalls San Francisco Childhood|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200503084210/https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/02/05/grammy-nominee-margaret-cho-recalls-san-francisco-childhood/|archive-date=May 3, 2020}}</ref> which she described as a community of "old [[Hippy|hippies]], ex-druggies, burn-outs from the 1960s, [[drag queen]]s, Chinese people and Koreans. To say it was a melting pot – that's the least of it. It was a really confusing, enlightening, wonderful time."<ref name=officialbio>{{cite web |url=http://www.margaretcho.com/content/bio/ |title=Bio| website=Margaret Cho official site| access-date=September 20, 2008| url-status=live| archive-date=April 9, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140409075155/http://margaretcho.com/bio/}}</ref> Cho's parents, Young-Hie and Seung-Hoon Cho,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/43/Margaret-Cho.html |title=Margaret Cho Biography |access-date=December 29, 2007 |work=FilmReference.com }}</ref> ran Paperback Traffic, a bookstore on Polk Street at [[California Street (San Francisco)|California Street]] in San Francisco. Her father writes joke books and a newspaper column in Seoul, South Korea.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800247891/bio |title=Margaret Cho Biography |publisher=Yahoo! Movies }}</ref>

At school, Cho was bullied, saying that "I was hurt because I was different and so sharing my experience of being beaten and hated and called fat and queer and foreign and perverse and gluttonous and lazy and filthy and dishonest and yet all the while remaining invisible heals me, and heals others when they hear it – those who are suffering right now."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-cho/it-gets-better_2_b_1294023.html|title=It Gets Better: How I Overcame Bullying|website=[[HuffPost]]|date=February 22, 2012|access-date=March 27, 2016}}</ref>

Between the ages of five and twelve, Cho was "sexually molested by a family friend". On the Loveline May 21, 1997 show with [[Adam Carolla]] and [[Drew Pinsky]], she talks about being raped by her uncle while during the same time period he was raping his three-year-old daughter.<ref name="billboard">{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6678375/margaret-cho-sexual-abuse-bullying-psycho-comedy-tour-album-robin-williams-joan-rivers|title=Margaret Cho Gets Deep About Past Sexual Abuse: 'All I Have Is Ownership of My Own Suffering' (Exclusive Interview)|magazine=Billboard|date=September 2, 2015|access-date=March 27, 2016}}</ref> She often skipped class and got bad grades in ninth and tenth grades, resulting in her expulsion from [[Lowell High School (San Francisco)|Lowell High School]].<ref name="billboard"/> Cho said she was "raped continuously through my youngest years" (by another acquaintance) and that when she told someone else about it and her classmates found out, she received hostile remarks justifying it, including accusations of being "so fat" that only a crazy person would have sex with her.<ref name="billboard"/>

After Cho expressed interest in performance, she auditioned and was accepted into the [[School of the Arts High School (San Francisco)|San Francisco School of the Arts]], a San Francisco public high school for the arts. While at the school, she became involved with the school's [[improvisational comedy]] group<ref>{{cite web|title=As Nasty As She Wants to Be|url=http://www.margaretcho.com/articles/individual_articles/asian_week_article.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020221213500/http://margaretcho.com/articles/individual_articles/asian_week_article.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 21, 2002|first=Dann|last=McDorman|date=November 8, 2001}}</ref> alongside actors [[Sam Rockwell]] and [[Aisha Tyler]].

At age 15, she worked as a [[phone sex]] operator<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2015/11/11/margaret-cho-worked-as-phone-sex-operator-at-age-15/|title=Margaret Cho worked as a phone sex operator at age 15|date=November 11, 2015|publisher=Fox News Channel|access-date=March 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160222080456/http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2015/11/11/margaret-cho-worked-as-phone-sex-operator-at-age-15/|archive-date=February 22, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> and she later worked as a [[dominatrix]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/fashion/margaret-cho-sex-work.html|title=Margaret Cho Wants to Talk About Sex Work|first=Lily|last=Burana|date=November 4, 2015|work=The New York Times}}</ref> After graduating from high school, Cho attended [[San Francisco State University]], studying drama but she did not graduate.<ref>{{cite book|author=Summers, Claude J.|page=72|title=The Queer Encyclopedia of Film & Television|publisher=Cleis Press | year=2005|isbn= 978-1-573-44209-1}}</ref>