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IN 'FUNNY BOY,' A YOUNG SRI LANKAN GAY MAN COM OF AGE AS ETHNIC TENSNS EXPLO
At the same time as he watch Sri Lanka’s Shale majory gradually turn agast his mory Ta muny, Arjie to terms wh the nsequenc of beg gay a patriarchal culture and fay. When his parents start openly worryg about his “funny” sexualy and Arjie realiz that he is ed gay, they all react wh ep embarrassment and shame.
Largely bee they do not know what to make of him and fear that his failure to be nventnally mascule reflects their failure as a fay, the Chelvaratnams repeatedly ll Arjie “funny”—a word that both betrays the fay’s anxiety about admtg the possibily of havg a gay son and shows that their homophobia is based on an unjtified, stctual revulsn, tied to the cultural norm of heterosexual marriage and fai.
Homosexualy.