This is then followed by an argument that a dialogue between diaspora and public sphere theories can be helpful for understanding British South Asian gay and bisexual men’s ideas on relationality. I argue here that creolization is a preferable alternative, because it avoids some of the shortcomings of the hybridity model. Diaspora theory has frequently advocated hybridity as the concept most suitable for interpreting processes of cultural mixing.
The chapter will first develop a queer diaspora framework as a conceptual tool for reading respondents’ comments on sexuality and sexual politics. It highlights frictions, but does not resolve tension into ready-made assumptions of ‘possible’ or ‘impossible’ identities ( El-Tayeb, 2011, 172). Creolization focuses on multiple ‘point(s) of entanglement’, which allows for the conception of inter-related and ‘situational’ communities. A creolization perspective is helpful for refining diaspora theory, because it endorses a rhizomatic understanding of connection, privileges ‘routes’ over ‘roots’ and avoids categorical rigidity and singularity, which have been common features of certain multicultural orthodoxies ( Glissant, 2010b). I conceive these spaces as part of a larger process towards the formation of queer diasporic counter-publics. The recent increase in cultural, social and political organizing among British South Asian lesbian, gay male, bisexual, transgender and queer people, I argue, results in the formation of discursive spaces that allow for the articulation of complex narratives on intimacy, sexuality, cultural or religious values and citizenship that creolize queer thought and politics. In this chapter, I deploy a queer diaspora framework, public sphere theory and a creolization perspective to understand the narratives and opinions of British South Asian gay and bisexual men on key queer tropes of sexuality, intimacy, non-monogamy and marriage. Glissant’s notion of creolization seems one of the most interesting and successful attempts at moving beyond the binary model of thinking so engrained in the ways we perceive the world.įatima El-Tayeb, European Others: Queering Ethnicity in Postnational Europe (2011), p. Édouard Glissant, Poetic Intention (2010), p. Evolving cultures infer Relation, the overstepping that grounds their unity-diversity. Keywords: British Asian, queer, non-monogamy, gay marriage, public sphereĬulture is the precaution of those who claim to think thought but who steer clear of its chaotic journey. The analysis draws on queer diaspora perspectives and public sphere theories to understand lesbian, gay male, bisexual, transgender and queer spaces and networks as a source for a rather troubled experience of ‘multiculturalism’. Focusing on British Asian gay and bisexual men’s criticism of white British lesbigay racism and cultural hegemony the chapter calls into question one-dimensional discourses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities. Christian Klesse engages with the experiences, narratives and viewpoints of British South Asian Men who participated in a study on discourses on non-monogamy in gay and bisexual male social movement spaces (1997-2003).