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Transnational
Queer Networks: Transforming
Sexual Identities among “Gay” Mexican Immigrant Men?
James
Thing
Department
of Sociology
University
of Southern California
Migration and sexuality scholars
assert that gender (Hondagneu-Sotelo 1994) and sexuality (Cantu 1999)
impact which social networks immigrants use during migration and
settlement processes. Based
on qualitative data from my dissertation research (which I am in the midst
of conducting right now), this paper explores the use of transnational and
local queer networks by gay Mexican immigrant men in Los Angeles. Gay migrants employ the material,
social and cultural capital of those involved in queer social networks in
both pre- and post-migration contexts.
From providing incentive and resources for migration to finding
housing, securing jobs and participating in leisure activities, queer
networks can play a central role in the life of migrants.
In this paper I argue that sharing
a common or similar understanding of sexual identity with others who
utilize transnational queer social networks facilitates participation in
these networks for gay immigrant men.
Two central questions then are:
What are the subjective understandings of “gay” or
“homosexual” held by the queer men who utilize these networks? And, how are their sexual
identities impacted by involvement in these networks?
Scholars have identified two
coexisting constructions of Mexican male homosexuality, one, a sex role
based, gender-stratified, activo/pasivo
model, and the other, an object choice or “egalitarian” model similar
to the gay model that dominates in postindustrial western societies (Cantu
1999; Carrillo 2002). The activo/pasivo
framework determines a man’s sexuality according to their gender
performance and the role they play in sexual acts which are believed to
coincide (Alonso and Koreck 1993; Carrier 1995). The gay model has its roots in
medical theories of sexuality and determines a person’s sexuality
according to the biological sex of their intimate partners (Murray 2000). Carrillo (2002) suggests, and my
own observations concur, that the subjective meanings associated with
either the activo/pasivo model
or with a gay identity combine elements of both constructions for men in
Mexico and for Mexican immigrant men alike.
That is, whether men identify as gay, homosexual, internacional or
as activos/pasivos, their own
self-understandings of their sexuality contain elements of both models.
This paper investigates the ways
that the sexual identities of queer migrants shape transnational gay social networks, and the ways that
participation in these networks in turn impacts sexual identities among
participants. While I contend
that a common or similar understanding of sexual identity is a precursor
to involvement in these networks, this does not mean that men who utilize
these networks must adopt any one specific understanding of homosexuality. Rather, multiple queer
subjectivities may exist. That
said, however, it seems that immigrant men who share these networks, over
time, come to have very similar ideas about their own sexual identities
and about the meanings of sexual identity categories. Further, these men seem to be
moving away from framing their sexualities within the activo/pasivo construction, and instead, over time, increasingly
incorporate elements of the gay model into their sexual identities.
Bibliography
Alonso,
Ana Maria and Maria Teresa Koreck. 1993. “Silences: ‘Hispanics’
AIDS, and
Sexual Practices,” in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, edited
by Abelove,
Barale, & Halperin. New
York: Routledge
Cantu,
Lionel, Jr. 1999. “Border Crossings: Mexican Men and the Sexuality of
Migration.” Ph.D.
Dissertation, UCI
Carrillo,
Hector. 2004. “Sexual Migration, Cross-Cultural Sexual Encounters, and
Sexual Health.” Sexuality Research & Social Policy, Journal of NSRC.
1:3, 58-
70.
Carrier,
Joseph. 1995. De Los Otros: Intimacy and Homosexuality Among Mexican
Men. New York. Columbia University Press.
Hondagneu-Sotelo,
Pierrette. 1994. Gendered Transitions: Mexican Experiences of
Immigration. Los Angeles. University of California Press
Murray,
Stephen O. 2000. Homosexualities. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
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