The Hidn Liv of Gay Men Cha ‹ Lerary Hub

Contents:

• THE HIDN LIV OF GAY MEN CHA
• HOMOSEXUAL STORI, FAY STORI: NEO-CONFUCIAN HOMONORMATIVY AND STORYTELLG THE CHE GAY COMMUNY
• 10 GREAT GAY FILMS OM EAST AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
• FEATURED SHORT STORI FICTN
• FOUR YEARS, TWO NTENTS: A GAY CHE UPLE'S JOURNEY FOR A SURROGATE SON

THE HIDN LIV OF GAY MEN CHA

“There is no discrimatn agast children, ” Fay Mister Eugenia Roccella told parliament when she troduced the bill June, explag that the children of gay upl would have accs to school and medil servic jt like those who only have one livg parent. “Fdg plac like GAMeBoi, where beg queer and Asian do -exist … It’s not like a 1, 000-year-old Korean cultural rual, but I uld create a new rual, ” said Ahn, a recent Friday, hundreds packed QT Nightlife’s monthly K-Pop Night at Micky’s, a Wt Hollywood gay club a block or so east om the old GAMeBoi posed for selfi a pk Barbie box wh dis balls hangg overhead. ” Asian Amerin advocy groups cricized Duran’s remark, wh API Equaly-LA potg to the long history of discrimatn agast Asian men gay muni such as Wt Hollywood, whose clubs “ed to require three forms of photo intifitn om anyone they perceived as Asian.

Rearchers have begun to vtigate, wre and publish stori of Che lbians and gay men, non-ernmental anizatns (NGOs) have started to anize story-sharg activi for gay people and parents of tongzhi Footnote 3 (also known as tongzhi parents), cultural products – such as novels and onle vios about lbians and gay men – have emerged on the ter, and gay people have begun to tell their own stori wh the velopment of new media platforms. Footnote 6 Cght up the transnatnal flow of queer culture, gay inty, muny and activism Cha has been the rise of an assiatnist polics a neoliberal form that has domated the Wtern lbian and gay movement the past several s. Footnote 7 Focg on equal rights centred on sexualy and sexual cizenship, this neoliberal sexual polics, or what Lisa Duggan lls “homonormativy, ”Footnote 8 distguish the publicly regnized, rpectable, “good” gay om the dangero, cent, “bad” one, implyg “a normative formatn that mak homosexualy more acceptable vis-à-vis heteronormative society.

HOMOSEXUAL STORI, FAY STORI: NEO-CONFUCIAN HOMONORMATIVY AND STORYTELLG THE CHE GAY COMMUNY

”Footnote 10 Unr such circumstanc, homonormativy has gaed populary and signifince related discipl such as soclogy, anthropology, human geography and terdisciplary fields cludg gay and lbian studi, queer studi, genr studi and postlonial studi.

However, this procs homonormativy has creasgly e to be prented as an “all-enpassg and unassailable” ncept scribg “a homogeneo, global external enty that exists outsi all of and exerts s terrifyg, normative power on gay liv everywhere.

”Footnote 11 In orr to crilly addrs this problem and ntribute to the emergg terdisciplary lerature on homonormativy, this rearch emphasiz the productn, circulatn and nsumptn of fay-themed homosexual stori as an analytil startg pot to pict the enunter between the neoliberal assiatnist sexual polics and neo-Confucian faism ntemporary Cha. Drawg on life-history terviews and participant observatn nducted Shenzhen, South Cha, this article foc on the val importance of fay-themed homosexual stori anizg the gay muny and shapg gay men's lived experienc Cha.

10 GREAT GAY FILMS OM EAST AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA

It ronat wh them as they each share an assiatnist strategy that seeks acceptance on heteronormative terms for the privileged, mastream portns of the gay muny while stigmatizg others;Footnote 14 challeng them bee of the val and plited role played by the fay shapg this strategy. As will be further elaborated, this Che versn of homonormativy that lot dividual queer sire neo-Confucian faial norms, or what we ll “neo-Confucian homonormativy, ” stctur the ntent of the fay-themed homosexual stori, shap the storytellg procs and dog so fluenc the anizatn of the Che gay muny and the lived experienc of Che gay men.

This analysis, we believe, will ntribute to recent efforts to centre the Wt/Global North genr and sexualy studiFootnote 15 by openg up the possibily of theorizg homonormativy and unrstandg homosexualy om an Asian/Global South perspective.

FEATURED SHORT STORI FICTN

It has bee an umbrella term “for LGBTQ assiatnist strategi based rpectabily polics, nsumerism and state regnn” – that is, a polics of gay munyFootnote 17 – and “a llectn of ternnected ials about what nstut a good gay life the ntemporary moment” – that is, a polics of gay life. Wh a specific emphasis on gay life “as is lived the centers of major metropolan global ci”Footnote 20 the studi have suated themselv the social and geographil ntexts of the Wt that are characterized by the extensn of neoliberal markets and mocraci towards the cln of sexual mori as legimate members of society, Footnote 21 and have overlooked “the specific ndns which homonormative policy disurs and practic occur and are (re)produced. There is still a need to theorize homonormativy differently “ specific ntexts”Footnote 28 the non-Wtern world, where heteronormative tradns are still pervasive and neoliberal mocraci and markets are still unevenly extend to clu mastream homosexual populatns.

FOUR YEARS, TWO NTENTS: A GAY CHE UPLE'S JOURNEY FOR A SURROGATE SON

Whereas the importance of the fay among lbians and gay men the Wt has been illtrated their fights for equal rights as adult cizens to get married and tablish their own fai, Footnote 31 among sexual mori Asia a signifint emphasis seems to be placed on relatns wh one's fay of orig. As Wei Wei observ, neo-Confucian fay iologi have been well rporated to the Che homosexual muny's fight for equal rights recent years, as n be seen om the creasg numbers of tongzhi parents engaged homosexual activism and the e of fay-centred language, such as faial emotn (qqg 亲情), love (ai 爱) and faial harmony (jiatg hexie 家庭和谐), as a means to legimate the fight for equal rights for homosexuals.

In that activy, the first thor troduced himself as a non-heterosexual soclogist rearchg the gay muny Shenzhen and then built nnectns wh many gay and lbian iends, gay volunteers, and tongzhi mothers volunteerg at SPFLAG. Over the next 17 months, he ntued his fieldwork by actively participatg activi anized by SPFLAG and other anizatns Shenzhen, jog private gathergs of gay and lbian iends, and nductg participant observatn their workg and livg plac.

Also, some were (or had been) heterosexual marriag, wh some even havg several children, while others avoid heterosexual marriage by remag sgle or tablishg a long-term relatnship wh another gay man, some s wh a surrogate child or children.

The stori, among other stori that have been and are still beg produced and circulated gay muni, often unfold around the theme of fay: relatns wh one's fay of orig, varieti of maral relatns, and possibili of tablishg a “rabow fay. ” In this sectn, on the basis of stori emergg om this regnal nference of PFLAG Cha we vtigate the central elements, assumptns and stctur of fay stori Shenzhen's gay muny and how the Wtern-centric notn of homonormativy is both challenged and evinced by the stori.

The ssns on the “sadns of gay men's wiv” and the “performance of nomal marriage” told the sad stori of gay men who uld not fully embrace their sexualy and tried to pe wh the prsure to marry by marryg an unwtg heterosexual woman or a nsentg lbian, and how their tragic liv were saved when they were brave enough to e out and accept who they really are. In the fal ssn on active ageg, a 64-year-old gay man suggted to the predomantly younger dience that they plan their futur early, while another speaker, a reprentative of one of the major sponsors of the nference, a surrogacy agency, highlighted the importance of havg children through surrogacy for lbians and gay men. The stori told at the nference were fay themed and homonormative the sense that they clearly distguished what Che lbian and gay men should do om what they should not, and dog so nstuted those who “follow the l” terms of fay practic as “cizens worthy of cln”Footnote 43 and those who fail to do so as sexual “others.

Mr D's words enpsulated the unrlyg theme of the nference: that lbians and gay men accept who they really are, bee healthy and sunny members of the gay muny, follow the mastream iologi of fay and timate relatnships, accumulate wealth and prepare for the future. The neoliberal dream has recently bee creasgly difficult to achieve, even for those soc-enomilly advantaged gay men, the tensified tensn between the neoliberal-lookg, market-oriented enomic polici and the state's centralized ntrol ntemporary Cha.

As we n see, the most “proper, ” “cent” and “sirable” way of beg gay the fay stori, or the disurse of zuo ziji, assum an urban, middle-class, nsumerist and smopolan liftyle, and this was almost impossible for more than 90 per cent of our terviewe, most of whom were migrant workers and stunts. To nclu, the emergg arena of fay-themed homosexual stori, we observe a Che versn of homonormativy, or what we fe as neo-Confucian homonormativy, that parts om and simultaneoly exemplifi the Wtern-centric mol of homonormativy.

Suated the tensn between dividual sire and fay norms, neo-Confucian homonormativy highlights both tergeneratnal timacy one's fay of orig and the bi-directnal flow of obligatns and disciplary effects between homosexuals and their parents.