How might a Sāmoan diasporic lens broaden our understanding of queer worlds?

Queer worlds are often theorized using Western frameworks of knowledge systems and power. In this book, queer author and researcher Seutaʻafili Patrick Thomsen brings diversity to the discourse, by exploring the stories of Korean gay men in and between Seoul in Korea and Seattle in the US. Drawn from lived experience and the author’s use of talanoa (Pacific research methodology), the book centres transnational, migrant and racialized realities – so contributing to the complication of West-centric ideas of gayness and coming out.

Looking at the intersections of race, globalization, diaspora, religion and queer identity, these stories add richness and complexity to the field of Queer and LGBT+ Studies.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• v
• Dedication
• ixContents
• 1 Beginnings
  • Notes on methodology: How can a Samoan come to know Korean gay worlds?
  • Chapter outline
• 2 Sleepless in Seattle: The complex and complicated coming-out process
  • Powerful legacies: Barnabas and the Christian church
  • The Pacific Northwest Native: Cain
  • Out of State: Azariah, Reuben, and Ezra
  • The complicated coming-out process
  • The importance of family
  • Constructing narratives of convenience
  • Discussion questions
• 3 Doing the transnational time warp: Constructing difference between Korean America and contemporary South Korea
  • Structures/discourses of exclusion and forms of resistance
  • Resisting the time warp in Korean America
  • On being raised in and choosing Korean America
  • Discussion questions
    • Diary entry
• 4 Global Korean gaze: Influences from the “West” and the emergence of a Korean gay consciousness in Seoul
  • The connections, effects, and flows of Western discourses, cultural productions, and ideas
  • Lady Gaga – Born This Way and the power of pop music from the West
  • All that glitters: The allure of a Western coming-out story
  • Korean backwardness, Western benchmarking, and the winds of change
  • The generational divide
  • Discussion questions
• 5 Negotiating queer/gay futurity in Seoul
  • Chaggi Kwalli and the cultivation of the self-reliant queer self
  • Strategizing, coming out in Seoul, and renegotiating familial roles and spaces
  • Navigating familial pressure and the harsh realities of militarism
  • The role of Christianity
  • Discussion questions
• 6 Seattle so gay white: Unpacking the experiences of racism among Korean gay men
  • Gay racism in America and the Asian American community
  • Becoming the racialized other in Seattle
  • A racialized life in Seattle
  • Korean sons return home
  • Discussion questions
• 7 Insidious collusion: Exploring the transnational nature of gay racism13
  • Utilizing the foreigner construct as point of reference
  • Getting a little help to come out in Seoul
  • Managing the realities of the language barrier in queer spaces
  • White gay men and the cooptation of racialization narratives
  • Discussion questions
• 8 Conclusion: Thoughts and reflections from a Samoan queer researcher
• 172171173References
• 185Recommended further reading
• Index

Seutaʻafili Dr. Patrick Thomsen (he/him) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Primary Health Care at the University of Otago Wellington Medical School in New Zealand, as well as the Associate Dean Pacific. Patrick is a proud faʻafafine and queer Samoan scholar, educator, and researcher, having received his doctorate from the University of Washington in Seattle. As an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary scholar, his research interests straddle the lines between queer and LGBT+ Studies, intersectionality, health and wellbeing, critical race theory, Pacific knowledges, transnationalism, and Korean studies. His research program currently takes in 3 main areas, Pacific Rainbow LGBTQIA+ MVPFAFF+ Wellbeing and human rights; Pacific transnationalism with a specific focus on New Zealand as a site for settler-colonial citizenship identity making; and researching the role and potential of Pacific pedagogies to enhance cultural safety for Pacific students in New Zealand universities.