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"We're There and Queer"

Homonormative Mobility and Lived Experience among Gay Expatriates in Manila

California State University, Fullerton

This article offers an analysis of lived experiences of transnational mobility for gay-identified expatriates who reside in Manila, the Philippines. Drawing from in-depth interviewing and discourse analysis of eight cases, the author argues that homonormative mobility organizes gay men's travel, even as gay expatriates work to reimagine themselves through their travel and face destabilizing experiences in transnational spaces. The author offers a theorization of homonormative mobility to explain discourses of normative gender, race-nation, and desire in gay travel. Specifically, she argues that expatriates describe their mobility as (1) an escape from the heteronormative controls they face at home, (2) masculine access to freeing places in "foreign" playgrounds, (3) an act of homo-orientalist desire of Filipino men and spaces, (4) a desirable experience that builds their own self-confidence, and (5) troubling for their self-perceptions.

Key Words: homonormativity • gay tourism • transnational feminism • sexuality • Philippines

Gender & Society, Vol. 23, No. 4, 465-493 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0891243209340570


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