Being gay has been a curse for me

Gay Muslim Americans, narrative and negotiations of belonging in the Muslimummah

Bibliographic Data

ID2137334
AuthorsAhmed Afzal (0000-0003-0454-6361, Purchase College, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume3
Issue1
Pages60-86
Publication date2014-03-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Language and Sexuality (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2211-3770 • E-ISSN: 2211-3789
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/jls.3.1.04afz
OpenAlexW1973081805
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited43

In this essay, I draw on ethnographic research with South Asian Muslim American gay men of Pakistani descent in Houston to explore everyday negotiations of religion, race, sexuality and transnationalism. The essay highlights three intersecting registers that situate gay Muslim American sexual cultural formations in local, transnational and cultural contexts. Drawing on participant observation and oral life history interviews, this essay examines: (a) culturally constructed male sexualities that are informed by the scripts, language, and cultural idioms of homo-sociality and same-sex eroticism, love and relationships in the homeland; (b) the increasing centrality of belonging to a transnational Muslimummah; and (c) the appropriation of western terminologies and categories of sexuality in constructing a gay identity. The narratives examined in this essay contribute to cultural analyses of transnational sexual cultures, and ethnographies of Muslim Americans and LGBTQIA immigrant communities in the West

Appropriation · Cultural appropriation · Diaspora · Ethnography · Homeland · Human sexuality · Immigration · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Transnationalism · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Anthropology · Gender Studies · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Migration, Refugees, and Integration

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