科研成果详情

- Living in a heteronormative society, homosexuals in China face many challenges. Among the challenges, marriage poses itself a top concern for the majority of homosexuals, in that the sociocultural factors cultivate it into an almost mandatory obligation. This paper reports a qualitative study of male and female homosexuals’ negotiation with their parents in contemporary Mainland China. The study explores how discourse functions as a strategy by gays and lesbians when negotiating heteronormative marriage with their parents. In the current study, 10 homosexuals in Mainland China participated in interviews, including five gays and five lesbians. Integrating both negotiation and discourse theory, this study was based on analysis of discourse. Major activities these homosexuals adopted included assertion of a homosexual life, construction of a flexible, and struggling with the process by being stuck in the current situation. Two major discourses these homosexuals employed as strategies to negotiate with their parents were a discourse of normality of homosexuality and a discourse of rewriting filial piety.