Amy Brainer
Biographic Data
| ID | 3920879 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Amy Brainer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Amy |
| FAMILY NAME | Brainer |
| SIGNATURE | BRAINER A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan–Dearborn |
| ORCID | 0009-0005-1913-1830 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 7 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
In Bed With the State? Queer and Trans Migrations Through Marriage
This review examines a quarter century of scholarship on LGBTQ marriage and partner migration. The question in the title of the article is one that comes up in different ways in this literature: the intrusion of the immigration state into couple and family relationships, and the extent to which queer and trans people are forced to be “in bed” or complicit with state normativities. Research highlights the enduring importance of national origin, ra…
There is Absolutely No Discrimination Based on that Allowed”
This article contrasts talk surrounding queer marriage and migration with the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people who have petitioned for status in the United States based on their relationships. I find that people use the concept of equality or being “the same” to dismiss testimonies of harm, and to hold individuals instead of systems and laws responsible for harms when they are acknowledged. I place this rhetoric in the context of US family immi…
Lesbian and Gay Parents, Heterosexual Kinship, and Queer Dreams
This article analyzes ways that legal and social understandings of kinship intersect for Taiwanese queer parents and prospective parents. Parents in this research experience varying degrees of legal and cultural intelligibility within the existing household registration system and the familial contexts in which they reside and carry out their daily lives. Many are rearing children in multigenerational, extended family households and are juggling …
Queer Kinship and Family Change in Taiwan
Winner of the 2019 Ruth Benedict Prize for Outstanding Single-Authored Monograph Interweaving the narratives of multiple family members, including parents and siblings of her queer and trans informants, Amy Brainer analyzes the strategies that families use to navigate their internal differences. In Queer Kinship and Family Change in Taiwan , Brainer looks across generational cohorts for clues about how larger social, cultural, and political shift…
New Identities or New Intimacies? Rethinking ‘Coming Out’ in Taiwan through Cross-Generational Ethnography
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 inst…
Mothering Gender and Sexually Nonconforming Children in Taiwan
How do emerging and enduring conditions of motherhood in Taiwan shape mothers' interactions with children who are gender or sexually nonconforming? Bridging research on the transformation of mothering discourses in Taiwan and globally with the small but growing body of work on LGBT family of origin relationships, this article argues that women's experiences of raising gender and sexually nonconforming children are integrally shaped by the conditi…
Queerying Families of Origin
Fifteen years ago, Robert-Jay Green published a critique of the prevailing wisdom surrounding lesbians and gay men in families of origin. In this work, Green (2000) called attention to the overgeneralization of findings from studies of White, North American, upperand middle-class lesbians and gays; recruitment primarily from PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and other groups that are likely to be uniquely accepting; and …
Mothering Gender and Sexually Nonconforming Children in Taiwan
How do emerging and enduring conditions of motherhood in Taiwan shape mothers' interactions with children who are gender or sexually nonconforming? Bridging research on the transformation of mothering discourses in Taiwan and globally with the small but growing body of work on LGBT family of origin relationships, this article argues that women's experiences of raising gender and sexually nonconforming children are integrally shaped by the conditi…
There is Absolutely No Discrimination Based on that Allowed”
This article contrasts talk surrounding queer marriage and migration with the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people who have petitioned for status in the United States based on their relationships. I find that people use the concept of equality or being “the same” to dismiss testimonies of harm, and to hold individuals instead of systems and laws responsible for harms when they are acknowledged. I place this rhetoric in the context of US family immi…
Lesbian and Gay Parents, Heterosexual Kinship, and Queer Dreams
This article analyzes ways that legal and social understandings of kinship intersect for Taiwanese queer parents and prospective parents. Parents in this research experience varying degrees of legal and cultural intelligibility within the existing household registration system and the familial contexts in which they reside and carry out their daily lives. Many are rearing children in multigenerational, extended family households and are juggling …
Queerying Families of Origin
Fifteen years ago, Robert-Jay Green published a critique of the prevailing wisdom surrounding lesbians and gay men in families of origin. In this work, Green (2000) called attention to the overgeneralization of findings from studies of White, North American, upperand middle-class lesbians and gays; recruitment primarily from PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and other groups that are likely to be uniquely accepting; and …
Mothering Gender and Sexually Nonconforming Children in Taiwan
How do emerging and enduring conditions of motherhood in Taiwan shape mothers' interactions with children who are gender or sexually nonconforming? Bridging research on the transformation of mothering discourses in Taiwan and globally with the small but growing body of work on LGBT family of origin relationships, this article argues that women's experiences of raising gender and sexually nonconforming children are integrally shaped by the conditi…
New Identities or New Intimacies? Rethinking ‘Coming Out’ in Taiwan through Cross-Generational Ethnography
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 inst…
Queer Kinship and Family Change in Taiwan
Winner of the 2019 Ruth Benedict Prize for Outstanding Single-Authored Monograph Interweaving the narratives of multiple family members, including parents and siblings of her queer and trans informants, Amy Brainer analyzes the strategies that families use to navigate their internal differences. In Queer Kinship and Family Change in Taiwan , Brainer looks across generational cohorts for clues about how larger social, cultural, and political shift…
Lesbian and Gay Parents, Heterosexual Kinship, and Queer Dreams
This article analyzes ways that legal and social understandings of kinship intersect for Taiwanese queer parents and prospective parents. Parents in this research experience varying degrees of legal and cultural intelligibility within the existing household registration system and the familial contexts in which they reside and carry out their daily lives. Many are rearing children in multigenerational, extended family households and are juggling …
There is Absolutely No Discrimination Based on that Allowed”
This article contrasts talk surrounding queer marriage and migration with the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people who have petitioned for status in the United States based on their relationships. I find that people use the concept of equality or being “the same” to dismiss testimonies of harm, and to hold individuals instead of systems and laws responsible for harms when they are acknowledged. I place this rhetoric in the context of US family immi…
In Bed With the State? Queer and Trans Migrations Through Marriage
This review examines a quarter century of scholarship on LGBTQ marriage and partner migration. The question in the title of the article is one that comes up in different ways in this literature: the intrusion of the immigration state into couple and family relationships, and the extent to which queer and trans people are forced to be “in bed” or complicit with state normativities. Research highlights the enduring importance of national origin, ra…
Sociology (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Queer (5 works) · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences (3 works) · History (3 works) · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving (3 works) · Kinship (3 works) · Political science (3 works) · Anthropology (2 works) · Computer Science (2 works)