How to say "you are gay" Che

Contents:

• HOW TO SAY "I'M GAY." MANDAR CHE.
• HOW TO SAY YOU ARE GAY CHE
• BEG GAY IN CHA (AS A FOREIGNER 2020-21) ?️‍? WHAT’S THE TTH?
• UNRSTANDG CHE GAY MEN’S AND LBIANS’ EXPERIENC OF COPG WH THE PRSURE TO MARRY OM THE LENS OF SUZHI DISURSE
• TRANSLATN OF GAY – ENGLISH–TRADNAL CHE DICTNARY

HOW TO SAY "I'M GAY." MANDAR CHE.

I’d done the rearch and all seemed to suggt that, although gay unns weren’t regnised Cha, I’d have no problems livg as a gay woman. I’d also read that due to expectatns of fay, many gay members of Che society kept their sexualy hidn, which ma me wonr, should me and my wife keep our ‘gayns’ somewhat quiet too?

I’d also seen many gay upl too, both male and female, but I was yet to see a gay uple wh children or a ‘rabow fay’ as we like to ll them. The biggt difficulti by far are burecratic, so if you’re planng on gettg married to your partner or havg a child as a gay uple Cha, uld be hard work. There is a large unrground gay scene Beijg, pecially for men, but there are also some gay nightclubs and you will see gay upl walkg around the streets holdg hands.

There has been some excellent rearch to the emergence of gay and lbian inti Cha, cludg how the have been shaped by ro-Amerin ias of “gay sensibily” and characterised by “dividualy, difference, sophistitn, liberatn and morny”.

HOW TO SAY YOU ARE GAY CHE

One 2018 study tailed gay bars Shanghai that rivalled those of any wtern pal, the anisatn of “pri” events and the tense ntexts which “queer” film ftivals and wir cultural productn and activism occur the face of ntued regulatn by the thorarian state.

Inspired by those experienc, for the past eight years, I have been rryg out rearch wh gay men the regn and, 2018, pleted a PhD this explorg gay liv Haan. I wanted to fd out how gay liv are lived on the margs of global LGBT polics and activism, away om ci imaged as smopolan centr of morny. My rearch explor how gay men Haan unrstand themselv, build muni and negotiate the prsur to nform to the heterosexual life script of marriage and reproductn.

I looked to how gay liv are figured out everyday teractns, how they are shaped by the spac which they unfold and how this plays out over time. “When we get there, don’t say any gay stuff, ” Ah Tao warns me as we approach a shop the cut-out rner of a buildg at an tersectn wh an even narrower alley. In the island’s biggt ci, Haikou and Sanya, there are gay bars and tablished cisg areas certa parks, centrally loted yet variably beyond the view of the wir public.

BEG GAY IN CHA (AS A FOREIGNER 2020-21) ?️‍? WHAT’S THE TTH?

Haikou’s current gay bar is accsed by climbg through a wdow on the fifth floor of an ageg tower block, out onto a balny, past a long dried-up swimmg pool and down a stg stairse.

In Sanya, the well trodn pathways that criss-cross a bamboo grove where the edge of a park meets a riverbank are a by gay meetg spot, while the cy’s gay bar, durg the time of my fieldwork, was aga loted a dised hotel. In the spac, fears of beg “outed” and the possible damage this uld do to fay and profsnal relatnships, mean that, as I was warned by Ah Tao, is bt not to “say any gay stuff”.

Careful regulatn of the language and knowledge that is allowed to circulate the spac ensur that gay men are only visible as gay men to one another. Yet, the time spent the spac is marked by anxieti that, at any moment, cracks might appear the barrier between parallel gay and straight worlds.

UNRSTANDG CHE GAY MEN’S AND LBIANS’ EXPERIENC OF COPG WH THE PRSURE TO MARRY OM THE LENS OF SUZHI DISURSE

In distct ways, gay spac Haan’s ci and towns are characterised by juxtaposns of visibily and visibily, centraly and margaly, prence and absence. Still standg that nvenience store Jiaji, a gay meetg place visible pla sight, Ah Tao has jt told me that all the men here are gay. Jt as gay spac Haan exist as cracks an otherwise heterosexual public sphere, so too do the time that gay men dite to socialisg gay muni.

But they are also a nstant prence everyday life, terptg moments of gay life – like the mundane and aggrsive remr Ah Tao received that he had “no wife, no children”. In the face of such prsur, many gay men Haan take much pleasure om their social and sexual relatnships wh other men and their sens of belongg to gay muni.

TRANSLATN OF GAY – ENGLISH–TRADNAL CHE DICTNARY

But they often fear that the ways of livg are unstaable and that they mt eventually leave the gay world and nform to their fai and the wir society’s expectatns that they marry and have children. The thgs that make me happy are the gay iends that I’ve ma … we have a lot to talk about and we belong to the same scene, we’re all homosexuals.

This has further entrenched the role of children as necsary rers for their ageg parents and gay men’s perceptns of their futur as oriented towards marriage and reproductn are wrapped up ncerns for self-prervatn. The tense social stigma that is attached to viatns om heterosexualy means that public visibily as gay is unsirable, pecially smaller ci and towns where bumpg to an nt, uncle or -worker is a nstant ncern. Organised activism has arrived Haan too, wh the tablishment of a regnal branch of the Parents and Friends of Lbians and Gays Cha 2016.

But this may signal at least some tert challengg the stat quo and the potential for future chang to gay liv Haan through greater public visibily and engagement wh activism. Whatever forms sexual polics and activism take Haan, close attentn should be paid to the ncerns and sir of gay men, lbians and other margalised genr and sexual groups. It may sound over the top but as I reflect on my time wh Ah Tao – and all I have learned om gay men Haan – I fd myself ntemplatg the meang of life.