New Identities or New Intimacies? Rethinking ‘Coming Out’ in Taiwan through Cross-Generational Ethnography

Abstract

In this article, the author analyzes the emergence of a ‘coming out’ discourse in Taiwan and the generational variation in its relevance for queer lives. Drawing from fieldwork with gender and sexually nonconforming people ranging in age from their 20s to their 70s, she argues that dominant identity-based frameworks are inadequate for understanding how and why this discourse has emerged in Taiwan at this historical moment. The findings point instead to generational shifts in familial interdependency and intimacy, which require new and hybridized strategies for managing gender and sexuality within families. This article highlights the importance of placing the small but growing body of work on LGBT family of origin relationships in conversation with theories of parenthood, kinship and family change.