Examining the intersections of race, culture, gender, and sexuality, Multicultural Queer: Australian Narratives explores the lives of non-Anglo homosexuals in Australia and the difficulties they encounter establishing themselves in gay and lesbian communities. Through academic analyses, creative genres, and personal narratives, this book describes how lesbians and gay men of ethnic minorities negotiate their sexuality amidst dual cultural forces. Multicultural Queer will help you learn about and understand the challenges that gay and lesbian ethnic minorities face within a Western culture.Discussing the experiences of individuals who have double or triple minority statuses--as gay people, as members of ethnic minorities, and/or as women--this book investigates racial stereotypes and the Australian gay "ideal." From Multicultural Queer, you will learn why many gay men of Asian ancestry feel sexually unattractive, develop certain habits to make themselves more acceptable to peers, and how they struggle to make sense of negative social experiences. Multicultural Queer contains research and first-hand accounts that give you insight into current efforts to explain and combat the exclusion of minorities, such as:
- the relationship between race and sexuality
- issues related to self-esteem of gay Asian men as determined by their identification with Asian and/or gay communities
- common cinematic tropes and theoretical discourses used to depict and define Asians as mostly heterosexual or sexually deviant because of their ethnicity
- how anti-Semitism and racism are reflected in lesbian communities and how they relate to issues of privilege, invisibility, and exclusion
- dilemmas, concerns, and strategies for integrating multiculturalism and multisexuality in educational institutions to combat homophobia
Providing a background on immigration to Australia, multiculturism policies, and general facts about the country, Multicultural Queer offers you a complete look at the diversity of Australian society. This insight will help you understand the feelings, stereotypes, and attitudes toward ethnic and sexual minorities and how they deal with their sexual and ethnic multiplicity.
Peter A. Jackson, PhD, is a Research Fellow in Thai I listory in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at Australian National University in Canberra. Fluent in spoken and written Thai, Dr. Jackson has conducted extensive research on gay and lesbian communities in hangkok and nearby provinces. [)r. Jackson was a founding member of the Australian (lay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force and helped develop a Thai language curriculum in Australian high schools. His book I)c'ar Uncle Go: Mule iiomofrxualiv in Thailand (1995) was the first major study of male hornoeroticism in Thailand. His other books include Buddhism, Legitimation, and Conflict: The Political I'unclions of Urban Thai Buddhism (1 989), The Intrinsic Quality' of Skin (1994), and the forthcoming hook Lady Boys, Tom Boys, l?eni Boys: Male and Female IIomoexualuws in Contemporary Thailand (The I laworth Press, Inc.). Gerard Sullivan, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Bchavioral Sciences at the University of Sydney in Ausralia. His research interests in gay and lesbian studies include civil rights, health issues, and the social construction of homosexuality in different cultural contexts. A board member of the Australian Centre for Lesbian and (lay Research, Dr. Sullivan is also the co--editor of Gays and Lesbians in Asia and the' Pacific: Social and Human Services (The Flaworth Press, Inc., 1995) and the forthcoming book Lady Boys, Tom Boys, Reizi Boys: Male and Female Homosexualuws in Con: L'mporaly Thailand (The Haworth Press, Inc.)
