A social psychological perspective on HIV/AIDS and gay or homosexually active Asian men

This paper employs findings in social psychological research to analyze HIV/AIDS-related issues among gay and homosexual Asian men living in western countries, specifically in Australia. This includes analyses of: (1) the impact of collectivistic cultural ideologies on self-conception and self-esteem; (2) self-identity related to the status of Asians as numerical and status minorities; (3) the existence of stereotypes of Asians in the gay communities and their consequences on individual Asians; and (4) issues related to self-esteem of gay Asian men as determined by their identification with the Asian and/or the gay communities and acculturation to the dominant Australian Anglo-Celtic culture.     

Using chopsticks to eat steak

"Rice queens," "small dicks," and "Asian take-aways," are just a few of the stereotypes that Asian gay men are faced with in Sydney's gay culture. Even though the author grew up in and quickly assimilated to the general Australian society, he felt like an outsider when he came out and moved into the gay community, where race-based sexual perceptions appear to dominate. This article is a personal exploration of how one Asian gay man came to find a place for himself within the predominantly white-oriented gay community. For the benefit of linguistically challenged readers, a glossary of Australian terms is provided at the end of this very serious article.     

Interpersonal contact experiences with gay men: a qualitative investigation of "fag hags" and gay-supportive heterosexual men

The purpose of this investigation was to understand how "fag hags" and gay-supportive heterosexual men (GSHM) describe the nature and quality of their interpersonal contact experiences with gay men. Eight archival interviews were analyzed using the methodologies outlined in Hill, Thompson, and Williams (1997); i.e., consensual qualitative research. The results yielded suggest that the nature of contact experiences relates to direct contact with gay men in institutional or social settings or via indirect, formative experiences. The possible roles that contact plays in attitudes formation include: (1) normalizing homosexuality, (2) challenging previously held myths and stereotypes, and (3) increasing a person's likelihood of having contact experiences with gay men and developing gay-supportive attitudes. Participants described the quality of the contact as taking place in the context of a friendship that developed between them and a gay male that strengthened after the gay friend came out. Furthermore, the impact of these contact experiences did not change fag hags' sense of morality, but "improved" their attitudes toward gay men. The results from this study have broader social implications in that they contribute to the much-needed discourse, from a qualitative perspective, on the ways in which people form gay-supportive attitudes. Future research should focus on describing the transformational nature of contact between gay men and heterosexuals in order to uncover any processes or stages that heterosexuals go through in developing gay-supportive attitudes.     

Coming-Out Experiences of Irish Gay Fathers Who Have Been Heterosexually Married: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

ABSTRACT

This study explores how Irish gay fathers, who married heterosexually in a heteronormative culture, assumed a settled gay identity in the Republic of Ireland. A purposive sample of nine men reflected on their experiences of marriage and separation, assuming a gay identity, and social and familial connectivity. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) indicated the suppression of gay sexual desires before marriage as a result of cultural homophobia. The coming-out process continued during the participants’ marriage. Extramarital same-gender sexual desires and/or transgressions co-occurred with existential conflict (remorse) and resulted in marital separation. The marital and family loss was experienced as traumatic, and suicidal ideation occurred for most. All the men assumed an openly gay identity after separating. Many established a family-orientated same-gender repartnership. Results highlight the individuality and significance of the marital and family loss for those who separate after coming out as gay.     

Reconfiguring Queer Asia as Disjunctive Modernities: Notes on the Subjective Production of Working-Class Gay Men in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Informed by the framing of queer Asia as disjunctive modernities, this article argues for the analytic relevance of class to Hong Kong queer culture amid proliferating sexual progress. Based on ethnographic research concerning a support group for middle-aged, working-class gay men in a non-governmental organization (NGO), the findings demonstrate how their understanding and experiences of class were displaced into the culturally specific discourses of aging and generational difference. By examining the ideological work underlying three sets of local discourses (namely, generational experiences, urban redevelopment, and industrial transformation), the analysis reveals a temporal logic of class relation that governed the informants’ class displacements and, in turn, safeguarded the reproduction of inequalities in their lives. This article concludes by highlighting the interferential potential of class for understanding the queer cultural and subjective formations in other East Asian societies that went through similar processes of postwar economic development and class formation.     

Romantic relationships and their social context among gay/bisexual male youth in the Castro District of San Francisco

This article examines the culture of romantic relationships among gay/bisexual male youth in the Castro District of San Francisco. The article seeks to specify the cultural ideology that informs these relationships, drawing upon ethnographic observation, autobiographical accounts, and informant cultural exegesis. The article also seeks to link thinking and experience inside romantic relationships (e.g., bonding, jealousy) to patterns of social behavior associated with romantic relationships (e.g., relationship sequestering, cheating), showing how both are informed by shared assumptions which make these emotions and gestures intelligible to the group. Beliefs about love, compatibility, and monogamy are explored. Reciprocity, including its degradation into negative forms, is examined with focus on the units of value that are exchanged in romantic relationships, in particular sentimental gifts. Gestures of commitment that mark commencement of a romantic relationship as well as extension of the dynamics of a relationship after "breakup" (as in "revenge sex" and "rebound relationships") are examined. Cultural systems that challenge adherence to a romantic ideology, such as a prestige economy associated with sex linked to an ethos of sexual exploration/recreation, are weighed against the pull of romance. "Drama," a hallmark of gay youth, is viewed in the context of romantic culture.     

From "Male Bonding Rituals" to "Suicide Tuesday": A qualitative study of issues faced by gay male ecstasy (MDMA) users

Use of MDMA and other club drugs has increased among gay men, but questions remain concerning the use, context, and popularity of these drugs; and views of their side effects. We interviewed in-depth 12 gay MDMA users in New York. MDMA had specific appeals to gay men, who often described isolation and stigmatization. Users underwent a period of initiation and social networks often became comprised of greater numbers of other users. Club environments fostered drug use and vice versa. Awareness of potential adverse effects varied and was minimized. Appropriate educational and prevention programs are needed to address these issues, and must take into account the specific contexts of these gay men's lives.     

Dualism,Tension, and Integration: Dialectics as a Theme of Integration in Daily Lives of Israeli Gay Men Who Became Fathers Through Overseas Surrogacy

ABSTRACT

This article explores the constructed meanings of lived experiences of Israeli gay men who became parents through commercial overseas surrogacy. Based on the analysis of 39 in-depth, semistructured interviews with gay fathers, we show that their parenting experiences are shaped in contradictory ways, allowing them to adopt a reflective position in relation to existing social frameworks. Data from in-depth interviews reveal three major themes. The first refers to the gap between biogenetic and social concepts of parenthood and kinship. The second presents the dialectics between continuity and change that gay parenthood exhibits. The third theme focuses on the impact of these contradictions on gay parents’ identities and the construction of autonomy concepts in their lives. By doing so, we highlight the importance of tensions and contradictions in shaping the daily living experiences of gay parents, as well as the importance of dialectics in promoting gay parents’ integration within heteronormative society.     

Part 1: HIV as'the line in the sand'

There is a growing rift between HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay men, which finds expression in social, economic, structural and political divisiveness that, if not resolved, may 'kill' the "gay liberation movement." While disasters generally tend to create organizational solidarity, the AIDS crisis has operated in reverse, spawning a variety of competitive AIDS service organizations, alienating seropositive gays from the mainstream gay community, and in turn disenfranchising seronegative gay men as human and financial resources are redirected toward persons living with HIV and AIDS. Serostatus has become a social marker of societal status, operating in a bimodal discriminatory manner. Seronegative gay men experience discrimination from within the gay community as funding for and services to this sector diminish. Seropositive gay men (and the organizations that provide for some of their needs) have culturally, economically and socially dismissed the socio/psychological needs of seronegative gay men (survivor guilt, safer sex education, etc.) in favour of providing social and resource-based services to seropositive gay men. As the disparities in service and advocacy increase, the social distance between the gay movement and the AIDS movement correspondingly increases. If this trend continues, the social gap will serve further to push HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay men into polarized camps, resulting in a wider separation of the gay movement and the AIDS movement. The stigmatization of HIV-positive people will subsequently increase both within and outside the gay movement, and any ability to present a unified Gay Liberation front will correspondingly diminish. Additionally, the emergent notion within and without the gay communities that to be gay is to be HIV-positive will solidify. This will (a) further stigmatize all gay men in the eyes of the non-gay population, and (b) exacerbate the rift between HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay men within the gay community, reversing the stigma of HIV such that to be HIV-negative will be a marker of non-gay identity. In short, seropositivity will become the defining element of gayness.     

Diary entries from the "teachers' professional development playground": multiculturalism meets multisexualities in Australian education

Educational institutions are major cultural and social systems that police and regulate the living out of multicultural and multisexual queer identities, yet which also provide sites for anti-discriminatory responses to the marginalization of these multiple, hybrid identities. Censorship and disapproval (both real and imagined) together with informal codes and regulations for inclusion and representation within school and college communities reflect and reproduce formal debates within the wider society, and within ethnic, feminist, and gay/lesbian communities. Through a series of "Diary Entries," I document my work and experiences with educational groups in both secondary and tertiary education in Australia in recent years-in what a bicultural, bisexual teacher-friend calls "teachers' professional development playgrounds." I explore dilemmas, concerns and strategies for placing "multiculturalism" on the "multisexual" agenda and, conversely, for placing "multisexuality" on the "multicultural" agenda.     

Men at sport: gay men's experiences in the sport workplace

Research on sexual identity and sport has revealed a shifting narrative about the experiences of gay men. While some suggest the atmosphere is hostile, others posit that homophobia and sexual prejudice are playing less of a role in gay men's experiences. This research focuses on the experiences of 10 gay men working in professional, collegiate, and club sport, as part of a larger dataset of 37 male and female employees. Five of the men were overtly and publicly out at work, while five were closeted (to varying degrees). This article focuses on three themes for gay men working in sport: 1) the importance of coming out in the workplace; 2) the role of the locker room as a contested terrain, and 3) the disconnect between their experiences at work and their perceptions of the workplace environment as negative or positive. Men in this study were basing their impressions on their total experience in sport (as current and former players, as employees, and as fans). It also suggests that the public "story" of gay men working in sport represents one of two extremes-either the proverbial "horror story," or the extremely positive representation of gay men's experiences. This research suggests that gay men's experiences in sport are more complex and nuanced than the public narrative implies.     

Imagined comrades and imaginary protections: identity, community and sexual risk among men who have sex with men in China

This paper describes the recent development of identity and community among gay men in China. It focuses both on the ways emerging forms of gay identity relate to larger ideological and discursive shifts within society, and on the ways these new forms of identity and community affect situated social interaction among gay men themselves. In particular, it addresses the question of how these emerging forms of gay identity and gay community affect the ways gay men in China understand the threat of HIV and make concrete decisions about sexual risk and safety. Among the chief tactics used by gay men in China to forge identity and community involves appropriating and adapting elements from dominant discourses of the Party-State and the mass media. This strategy has opened up spaces within which gay men can claim "cultural citizenship" in a society in which they have been heretofore marginalized. At the same time, this strategy also implicated in the formation of attitudes and social practices that potentially increase the vunerability of Chinese gay men to HIV infection.     

Japanese male gay and bisexual identity

Few studies have ever dealt with Japanese male gay and bisexual identity. This exploratory study investigated gay and bisexual identity through interviews of 34 Japanese gay and bisexual men. Though Japan has unique cultural aspects that are different from Western countries, it can be shown that Western concepts or models of homosexual identity are applicable to a considerable extent to Japanese gay and bisexual men. The results of this study suggest that there are two distinct types of Japanese men sexually interested in men, which the author will call "bisexual" and "gay." These two types are compared in terms of three aspects: self-identity, sexual preference, and social identity and role. A significant number of respondents have careers or vocations in the arts. This study touches on the correlation between art and male-male sexual orientation in Japan.     

Immigrant Sexual Minority Latino Men in Rural North Carolina: An Exploration of Social Context,Social Behaviors,and Sexual Outcomes

Immigrant sexual minority Latino men—who may or may not self-identify as gay—constitute a minority within a minority. Often labeled “hidden” and “hard-to-reach,” and marginalized along multiple dimensions, it is a subgroup about whom little is known. Informed by a social ecological framework, we sought to describe key social variables for 190 such men in rural North Carolina and to test associations with three sexual outcomes: consistent condom use, number of sex partners, and sexual compulsivity. Participants reported limited English-language use, predominantly Latino close friends, middle levels of social support despite numerous social ties, and frequent experiences of discrimination. There were unique sets of correlates for each sexual outcome. Findings may inform health promotion interventions and guide future research.     

Changing cultural and social environments: implications for older East Asian women

The world is aging and the trend is towards a global feminization of aging. In the Asia Pacific region, which already contains approximately 50% of the world's population over age 60, the number of older women exceeds that of older men in most countries. This article explores the changes that are occurring in East Asian social and cultural traditions for aging and discusses the implications of those changes for women who aged in that culture. In the traditional culture, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean families are influenced by values of family centrality and collective orientation to life that are mostly rooted in Confucian values and ethics. In those traditions, older women assume and maintain a valued status within the family and community through respected roles and productive contributions. However, various factors, such as migration to urban areas and demographic shifts, have precipitated modernization of these societies and alterations of traditional culture. These cultural shifts are relevant to the United States where, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, 71.0% of Asian and Pacific Islander-Americans over the age 65 are foreign-born. Immigration can prompt an immediate cultural shift and create a fast forward insight into the slower cultural evolution currently occurring in East Asian societies.     

Sexuality and human rights: an Asian perspective

In Asia, the lesbian and gay rights movements are clearly dominated by activists, who tend to think in terms of a binary opposition (homo- vs hetero-) and clear-cut categories. Based on "Western patterns," the approach is practical, the arguments based on minority rights. "Coming out" is often perceived as a "white model" bringing more problems than real freedom. On the contrary, "Asian values" put the emphasis on family and social harmony, often in contradiction to what is pictured as "lesbian and gay rights." Homophobia follows very subtle ways in Asian countries. Asian gays have to negotiate their freedom, lifestyle and identities in an atmosphere of heterosexism, and not the endemic violent homophobia prevalent in many western countries. In Asia, one's identity relates to one's position in the group and sexuality plays a relatively insignificant role in its cultural construction. That Asian gays often marry and have children shows the elasticity their sexual identity encompasses. Fluidity of sexuality does not really match the Western approach in terms of essentialist categories that have a right to exist. Most Asian societies can be thought of as "tolerant" as long as homosexuality remains invisible. Procreative sexuality can be seen as a social duty, and heterosexual marriage is often not considered incompatible with a "homosexual life." The development of the Internet has even facilitated the encounters while allowing secrecy. Unfortunately, the traditional figures of transgender and transvestites have often been separated from the gay liberation movement.     

“Post-Gay” Yet? The Relevance of the Lesbian and Gay Scene to Same-Sex Attracted Young People in Contemporary Australia

In recent years, the lesbian and gay “scene” of bars, nightclubs, and dance parties has been undergoing a structural decline in many Western cities. This article aimed to examine the relevance of the scene to same-sex attracted young adults amid these changes. An online survey was conducted with 572 same-sex attracted young women and men in Sydney. Only a minority of respondents participated in the scene at least weekly (16%), and the majority did not regard the scene as important to their leisure time (60%). However, respondents valued the scene as a space to connect with other same-sex attracted people and display same-sex affection without fear of hostility. Lesbian and gay identified respondents tended to be more socially engaged with the scene compared to other same-sex attracted respondents. The findings suggest that while the scene continues to be valued by many same-sex attracted young people, improved social attitudes have made participating in the scene less of an imperative.     

Getting out in the "real world": young men, queer and theories of gay community

A recent opinion piece published in the Sydney Morning Herald expresses a widely held perception that, among young same-sex attracted men in Australia, "queer" has well and truly supplanted "gay" as the language and lens through which self and practice is generated. In this article, I discuss findings from a qualitative research project that studied notions of community among young gay men, and argue that this assumption should not be taken for granted. The article explores participants' understandings of the concept of "gay community," arguing that the young men studied share a common definition of community: one based on a conventional liberal model which prioritizes sameness and the cooperation of individuals to achieve common goals. This is of particular importance in that problems around "fitting in" with these understandings are also raised. In examining the potential place for queer alternatives to these formulations, however, the article finds that queer attracts little support among participants, raising questions about the bind young men may find themselves in if they prioritize sameness as fundamental to community, yet feel themselves to be excluded from community by their own or others' perceived difference.