The Importance of Family for a Gay Hmong American Man: Complicating Discourses of “Coming Out”

This article draws on research with a gay Hmong young man to illustrate the ways in which coming out discourses fail to take into account the central importance of family and kinship forgay Hmong Americans. It draws on the narratives of a gay Hmong man that emphasizes the importance of family reputation and family bonds to offer an alternative discourse to coming out narratives. It advances understandings of gay identity and experiences by explicating the ways in which family and community are important for a gay Hmong American man. This research significantly contributes to the dearth of research on Asian American LGBT experiences ingeneral and those of LGBT Hmong Americans in particular.