This blog post is in response to a reading by Gilbert Caluya for my Gender & Sexuality course at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia with lecturer Margaret Mayhew.
Source: Caluya, G, 2006,’The (Gay) scene of racism:face, shame and gay Asian males’ ACRAWSA e-journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2006
In this essay by Caluya, he uses auto ethnographic research to focus on the actual lived experience of anti-Asian racism within the gay community. He also explores examples of gay Asian male experiences of racism on the gay scene in Australia and how these experiences somehow develop and promote their racial and sexual subjectivity.
In this post I will responding using some of the critical thinking skills taught in my gender studies class to further analyze the readings. This essay discusses the racial and social discrimination of gay Asian-Australians in Australia. It talks about how gay Australian guys are not prominently pursued by gay white Australians, unless the Australian gay men are specially interested in dating Asian men. These men are wittingly referred to as "Rice Queens." The essay also discusses how gay Asians are considered "invisible" and ignored in the gay communities, like for example, at a bar by bartenders. It further discusses how Asian men are less sexually desired etc.
In this reading I identified socialized forms of domination and oppression of gay Asians in Australia by Anglo Australian males. There is a type of "privilege" given to gay white Australian men of acceptance and sexual desirability there isn't given to gay Australian males. I believe this is due to the intersection of race (Asian-Australian) and class (not being a white Australian). Because gay Asian men are of a different social class, one that isn't as acknowledged and respected in the gay communities, they aren discriminated against.
In conclusion I find it interesting that even within a social group that experiences heavy discrimination and subjectivity (the gay community) there is more judgment and prejudices against different racial/ethnic groups within that specific social group.
Below is a youtube video by a gay Asian male discussing his personal experience and persecutive of not experiencing discrimination within the homosexual community. Take a look at it and leave your thoughts below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auloNw8tx2Y
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