What always interests me is reading personal experiences of someone's in literatures. In the reading
Maiden Voyage: Excursion into Sexuality and Identity Politics in Asian America by Dana Takagi under The Coming Out Incident, she depicts the moment of when one of her students came out in class. "In the silence that followed I quickly surveyed the room. A dozen or so Asian American students whom I had forced into a semicircular seating arrangement started glumly at their shoes" (29). Reading this I remembered the Japanese community I was brought up in, because it is part of our custom to choose silence over speaking up, especially in situations where it is out of the "norm". In Japan, LGBQT in the society is very rare and rather there seems to be a notion that it's against the society rule if an individual is LGBQT. I'm sure there are some who identify as gay, lesbian, or bi, but many do not come out because there are strictly structured gender roles that Japanese people are expected to follow. There's a well-known saying in the Asian culture: "The nail that sticks up will be hammered down," which states that people dislike attracting attention to themselves so they'd choose to be similar with other.
I'm sure the idea of silence is not just common within Japan but in fact in many of the Asian countries. Immigrants who live in a close-knit community will probably be less likely to come out from the fear that they could get isolated from their already-small community (and family). Their community/family is the only constant factor in their lives post-immigration, for language, culture, and friends may change.
Silence has now become part of the stereotypes of the Asian community and put a positive imagery of the "good" minorities (26). It's a concept that must be proven wrong, but it has become a well-known stereotype so will it even be possible to break it?
Unfortunately, for many in America it is still the custom to choose silence, which is part of the reason that coming out is such a huge step for so many people, and why coming out stories are such a large part of LGBT culture. There are still some very good reasons for not coming out, namely bullying and harassment. I'm speaking specifically about the spate of teen suicides across the country in the past few years due to bullying of middle and high school students about their real or perceived sexuality. One of the boys who killed himself after he was bullied was twelve.
ReplyDeleteHowever, due to the close-knit nature of Asian American communities, the issue of coming out is even more worrisome for LGBT Asian Americans, since they run a greater risk of family reaction.