Culture/Communy/Race: Che Gay Men and the Polics of Inty on JSTOR

Contents:

• DISCLOSURE, DISCRIMATN AND SIRE: EXPERIENC OF BLACK AND SOUTH ASIAN GAY MEN BRA
• NO ASIANS, NO BLACK PEOPLE. WHY DO GAY PEOPLE TOLERATE BLATANT RACISM?
• THE URGENT QUTN GAY ASIAN-AMERIN MEN ARE ASKG THEMSELV
• VERY FEW PEOPLE SAY “NO WH”: GAY MEN OF COLOR AND THE RACIAL POLICS OF DIRE
• HAPPY ALONE? SAD YOUNG MEN EAST ASIAN GAY CEMA
• ANTI-BLACK, GAY, ASIAN BIAS FUEL CALIFORNIA HATE CRIME SURGE

DISCLOSURE, DISCRIMATN AND SIRE: EXPERIENC OF BLACK AND SOUTH ASIAN GAY MEN BRA

“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. Usg fdgs om a qualative vtigatn based on -pth email terviews wh 47 Black and South Asian gay men Bra, this paper explor the cross-cuttg inti and disurs relatn to beg both gay and om an ethnic mory background.

Takg an tersectnal approach, tailed acunts of inty negotiatn, cultural prsur, experienc of discrimatn and excln and the relatnship between mory ethnic gay men and mastream Whe gay culture are prented and explored. The major fdgs mon to both groups were: cultural barriers limg disclosure of sexualy to fay and wir social works; experienc of discrimatn by Whe gay men that clud excln as well as objectifitn; a lack of posive gay role mols and imagery relatg to men om mory ethnic backgrounds.

NO ASIANS, NO BLACK PEOPLE. WHY DO GAY PEOPLE TOLERATE BLATANT RACISM?

Among South Asian gay men, a major theme was regret at beg unable to fulfil fay expectatns regardg marriage and children, while among Black gay men, there was a strong belief that same-sex behavur subverted cultural notns related to how masculy is nfigured. Empowers and supports LGBTQI (Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, Queer, Qutng, and Intersex) dividuals, their iends and fay to work towards rolvg challeng lked to sexualy or genr inty, particularly where relign is heavily fluencg the suatn. Established 2011, Kaleidospe Tst works to uphold the human rights of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT+) people untri around the world where they are discrimated agast or margalised due to their sexual orientatn, genr inty and/or genr exprsn.

”There has been posive change recent months, one leadg black gay journalist tells me, but only bee of the work of ethnic mory LGBT dividuals “holdg magaz to acunt, settg up their own nights across the scene” and g social media, blogs, podsts and boytts to force LGBT people are much more likely than heterosexuals to suffer om mental distrs, the level is even higher among ethnic mori. In France, reportedly a third of married gay upl support the far-right Natnal stggle agast racism has, of urse, to be led by people of lour who suffer the nsequenc – such as Black Out UK, which fights for a platform for black gay men, and Media Diversified, which mpaigns for mory reprentatn the media.

Wh this urgency to fe their own experienc and the begng of the mise of -swchg, gay Asian-Amerin men are askg qutns spe such mixed signals—or perhaps bee of them: What do beg more Amerin really mean? ”A Pri celebratn on June 27, 2021 New York Tompks//Getty ImagRoss’s experience speaks to a realy mon among more than a dozen gay Asian Amerins Esquire terviewed, all of whom flagged that though they have found joy and succs, blossomed om toxic soil. ” A mory upon a mory, gay Asian-Amerin men scribe a lot of overlap their inti: Both sis of that tersectnal inty are affected by enclave livg ( eher ethnic neighborhoods or gayborhoods), prumptn of crazy rich liftyl spe extreme wealth dispary for both Asian and gay Amerins, and a sheen of emasculatn that was famoly ritured a racist natnal magaze spread om 2004 that asked of s rears, “Gay or Asian?

THE URGENT QUTN GAY ASIAN-AMERIN MEN ARE ASKG THEMSELV

Highlights—like poet and novelist Ocean Vuong’s poignantly msy sex scen On Earth We’re Briefly Geo, or the tenr shower scene last year’s Taiwane gay romance Your Name Engraved Here—are few and fleetg. ” He add that he intifi more as a daddy the days than as Asian seems some gay Asian-Amerin men across generatns are leang to a sense of belongg by birthright and all the brash nfince giv them, at a time when what means to be Amerin and what means to be gay are pg the grip of whe hegemony. Specifilly for gay men, a slim hairls body may provi men who posss those tras wh sexual currency at a “Twk bar, ” but those same tras would have ls currency at a “Leather bar, ” where burlier bodi are nsired more sirable.

While a number of different typ of sexual fields that n be found the gay muny have been discsed the amic lerature as well as the popular prs, there has been ls attentn paid to the ways that erotic words are socially anized (Mart and Gee 2006). To do so, we brgg together the sexual fields perspective wh the growg lerature on sexual racism, an act of eher sexually excludg non-wh as potential partners or cludg racial mori as sexual partners based only on racial several scholars have noted, ntemporary gay life is marked by high levels of racism directed towards gay men of lor by gay whe men, wh much of the racism maniftg self as negative sexual attus towards, and sexual excln or fetishizatn of, non-whe men (Armstrong 2002; Bébé 2001; Epste 1996; McBri 2005; Tenunis, 2007). After examg onle personal ads and terviewg gay men, Robson (2015) found that gay whe men often exclu gay men of lor as potential sexual partners while nyg that their racial preferenc are racist nature.

In fact, several studi have shown that gay whe men were much more likely to prefer their own race and actively exclu non-wh as potential sexual than gay men of lor (Lundquist and L 2015; Ph and Kfman 2003; Rafalow, Feliciano, and Robt 2017; Smh 2014). Dpe gay whe men’s sistence that sexual excln was not racism but rather personal preference, and that the personal preferenc have nothg to do wh racism, Collanr and his lleagu (2015) found that attus toward sexual excln were related to almost every intified factor associated wh racist attus general.

VERY FEW PEOPLE SAY “NO WH”: GAY MEN OF COLOR AND THE RACIAL POLICS OF DIRE

Th, sexual racism should be unrstood not as personal preference, but as “problematic ndns that stcture the very formatn of romantic relatnships” that is neher benign nor trivial (Bedi 2015: 998) the ia of sexual racism has been wily discsed the popular prs, and amic studi have also documented the racial hierarchy of sire the gay muny, there have been fewer attempts to systematilly exame how such racialized hierarchi of sire are unrstood by gay men of lor and, more importantly, the impact the racial hierarchi have on them. Wh any sexual field, some dividual e to be seen as more sirable than other dividuals pendg on the tras that they posss that are valued by the specific sexual field which they discsg gay sexual fields, Green (2008; 2011) intifi a number of potential tras that fluence the level of sirabily that any given dividual might posss.

HAPPY ALONE? SAD YOUNG MEN EAST ASIAN GAY CEMA

As evinced by Green’s own acunts of his field work, and the statements ma by participants his study, race plays a pivotal role fg attractivens and sirabily across var sexual fields wh the gay muny. Whether the specific field qutn is a gay leather bar or a gay sports bar where different typ of drs, different amounts of body hair, etc., may be emed more sirable, race remas a nsistent, and nstant, marker of sirabily.

ANTI-BLACK, GAY, ASIAN BIAS FUEL CALIFORNIA HATE CRIME SURGE

In fact, sire for whens has been noted by a number of scholars examg race and racism the gay muny (Callanr, Holt and Newman 2016; Han 2007; Robson 2015; McBri 2005; Tnis 2007) other characteristics intified by Green, such as clothg or mculary, whens is a central anizg prciple the gay muny (Bébé 2001; Han 2007). In promotg equaly through the normalizatn of (homo)sexualy at the expense of “non-gay” issu, gay anizatns such as The Human Rights Campaign promote a monolhic image of the “gay muny, ” as beg rich, nservative, and whe (Bébé 2001; Phelan 2001; Seidman 2002; Walters 2014). We would argue that the value of whens transcends diverse sexual fields wh the gay muny that acts as a universal currency that superses all other characteristics emed worthy wh any given sexual field.

As Peter Jackson (2000: 184) not:When sirabily is lked wh race, and when certa rac are ascribed greater erotic tert than others, then to be a member of an “unsexy” ethnic group is to be equated wh an ferr form of importantly, unlike other markers of sirabily among gay men that Green discs, such as amount of body hair, mculary, cloth, etc., race is an entirely ascribed stat, not an achieved one.

I ed to have a 10-foot area around me and people would avoid me, I uldn’t believe while mculary may be the sired tra a “mcle bar, ” the lived realy for gay men of lor is that their attempts to velop or acquire the currency of sire wh those specific gay spac, or sexual fields, is negated by their race. More importantly, when gay men of lor are sexually preferred by gay whe men, they are preferred not as dividuals but bee they fulfill racial stereotyp regardg sexual behavrs (Wilson, valera, Ventuneac, Balan, Rowe and Carballo-Dieguez 2009). While still utilized by a number of ntemporary scholars to exame racialized sexual stereotyp of black men and women (Buggs 2017; Stevenson 1994; Yancey 2002), the ncept of sexual racism has been particularly eful examg sexual excln of gay men of lor as potential sexual partners, as well as for examg the sexual objectifitn of gay men of lor, by gay whe men.