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6. Why Queer Asian American Studies? Implications for Japanese America Amy Sueyoshi

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6. Why Queer Asian American Studies? Implications for Japanese America Amy Sueyoshi 104 Amy Sueyoshi Why QueerAsian American Studies? 105 6. Why Queer Asian American Studies? ues to be accepted by a straight mainstream as propelling Implications for Japanese America culture of queer a broader acceptability.4 Moreover, with ty more gay visibili media images of gays and lesbians appear largely white with a Amy Sueyoshi handful of African Americans who are coming out in professional sports.5 Asian Americans_as well as Latinos, Native Americans, In 2013 the United States Supreme and Pacific Islanders—remain Court ruled unconstitu almost completely absent. tional the from a few queer Aside Defense of Marriage Act that had restricted marriage as a activists and actors visible in the as Helen Zia, mainstream such union only between a man and a woman.’ The federal recognition George Takei, and B.D. Wong, to what does queer have of same-sex marriage appeared to many as the final victory in a na do with Asian America? tional LGBT civil rights campaign that had been gaining momentum Certainly, there are LGBT Asians in America. One gener with the earlier termination of “Don’t ation of radical queer Ask, Don’t Tell,” a policy that Asians outed themselves nationally had l980s when they in the prohibited the participation of gays and lesbians to openly serve joined other queer women of umenting color writers in doc in the military.2 In television as well, a venue that theorists such and publishing their experiences at the intersection of as John Hartley claim coheres American race, gender, and sexuality ideals and belonging, gay in short stories, poems, and images writings. This polemical have surged in the twenty-first century. More than fifty les Bridge Called My Back published countless in 1981 inspired bian and bisexual characters alone, not including gay men, appeared queer women of color and continues to be cited as a foun in popular dramas such as ER and NYPD dational text in women Blue in 2010. Shows that of color feminism.6 Thirteen years publication of later, the centralized being gay such as Wilt and Grace and Queer Eye for the The Very Inside appeared as ble the first widely accessi Straight Guy also drew tremendous numbers of viewers. Ellen De collection of writings comprised entirely from Asian and Pacific Generes, an openly gay comedian and TV personality, won the Day Islander Lesbian and Bisexual Women. The same year, the leading time Emmy Award for Outstanding scholarly serial in Asian Talk Show Host four years in a American Studies titled Amerasia published a Journal row. While DeGeneres had suffered a major career set back shortly special issue on sexuality that API featured various queer after coming out in 1997, by 2005 she had risen to become “Public perspectives from artists, activists, and academics. Alice Hom Lesbian Number One” according to cuitural critic Jennifer Reed.3 underscored the necessity of mapping queer sexuality “as a part For sure, increasing Asian American family” of queer visibility is more complicated than due to the reality of gay and dren.7 Indeed, lesbian chil simply a sudden loving embrace of all LGBT people. Media schol it would be ahistorical if not gays simply naïve to imagine ars such as Suzanna Walters notes that this advancement in visibil and lesbians as existing only in the contemporary period or ity has come about through the assimilation of queers as something only among whites. In my own research I trace the significance of commodifiable in the cultural marketplace same-sex sexuality of Issei of consumerism. Jamie Yone Noguchi, among the first Skerski warns Japanese immigrants group of that DeGeneres’ rise has taken place only through the in the late nineteenth century. Wu has also Historian Judy sanitizafion of her queerness as she reconstituted herself as the “girl traced the life of rumored lesbian first known Margaret Chung, the next door.” In politics as well, Richard Goldstein cites the rise of American-born Chinese physician is and surgeon. Chung “homocons,” gays and lesbians who subscribe to conservative val also the founder of the Chinese hospital in San Francisco China town in the early 1 920s . Pan-Japan, Vol. 12, Nos. 1 & 2 Spring! fall, 2016 ii. I II ‘S II iiii LI I “iii I IJiq lii’ I I ‘0 -l •1 a I ii I I I I’ I 0 -I “tv’ ‘uphill’ 2 I ft I 1 hifStbiIi4IflI ‘ Ihiit ‘11 jjfiid111111 hisJIJIhhjjJ1 tiIjI It’iLiIIiJq’iii 1111111 JIdiii “UI IiLid •pflh •IIhU’ I hi’ifIiI’ll -I ! C’, riD LI) C’, C,,I E ri) ‘4- U, C C) C U, E Why Queer Asian American Studies? 117 116 Amy Sueyoshi and Gloria Anzaldüa, ed., This Bridge more than simply acknowledging their existence and negotiating 6. Cheme Moraga Radical Women of Color (Watertown, their identities. It serves more defiantly as a site of radical change Called my Back: Writings by 1981). For texts on its significance see M. for not just domestic issues but more urgently for international MA: Persephone Press, of Meditations on Feminism, unrest and global imperialism. Queerness can then be understood Jacqui Alexander, Pedagogies Crossing: the Sacred (Durham, NC: Duke Uni as “part love-letter to the past and future” in the words of José Sexual Politics, Memory, and ofAmerican Capital: Esteban Mufloz, to aim towards a utopia filled with surprise and versity Press, 2005); Grace Hong, The Ruptures Immigrant Labor (Uni imagination.29 Women ofColor Feminism and the Cultures of versity of Minnesota Press, 2006). For additional queerAsian work in a Woman who Breathes Fire Notes the 1980s see Kitty Tsui, The Words of and 1. Ryan J. Reilly and Sabrina Sidiqqui, “Supreme Court (New York: Spinsters Ink, 1983); Willyce Kim, Dancer Dawkins Publications, 1985). DOMA Decision Rules Federal Same-Sex Marriage Ban Unconsti the California Kid (Boston: Alyson The Very Inside: An Anthology of tutional,” Huffington Post, June 26, 2014, accessed July 6, 2014, 7. Sharon Lim-Hing, ed., and Bisexual Women http://www.huffingtonpost.corn/20 13/06/26/supreme-court-do- Writing by Asian and Pacific Islander Lesbian Ainerasia Journal 20, no. 1 (Los ma-decision_n_34548 11 .html. (Toronto: Sister Vision Press, 1994); Press, Alice Horn, 2. Elisabeth Bumiller, “Obama Ends ‘Don’tAsk, Don’t Tell’ Angeles: UCLA Asian American Studies 1994); ofAsian American Parents Policy,” The New York Times, July 22,2011, accessed July 6,2014, “Stories from the Homefront: Perspectives 20, no. I http://www.nytimes .comI2O 1 1/07/23!us/23military.html?_r0. with Lesbian Daughters and Gay Sons,” Amerasia Journal 3. John Hartley, Uses of Television (New York: Routledge, (Los Angeles: UCLA Asian American Studies Press, 1994), 32. Race, Nation, and 1999); “AfterEllen.com’s lop 50 lesbian and bisexual characters,” 8. Amy Sueyoshi, Queer Compulsions: (Honolulu: University of AfterEllen .com, accessed July 19, 2014, http://www.afterellen.com/ Sexttality in the Affairs of Yone Noguchi afterellencomstop50lesbian-and-biseXUal-characterS1’O3/2O 10!; Hawai’i Press, 2012); Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Doctor Mom Chung of — Life ofa Wartime Celebrity (Berke Jennifer Reed, “Ellen DeGeneres: Public Lesbian Number One,” the Fair-Haired Bastards The California Press, 2005). Feminist Media Studies 5 (2005): 23-36. Accessed July 6,2014, doi: ley and Los Angeles: University of Introduction (New 10.1080/14680770500058165. 9. AnnaMarie Jagose, Queer Theory: An Af 4. Suzanna Walters, Alt the Rage: The Story of Gay Visibil York: New York University Press, 1996). For works constructing as queer see Siobhan Somerville, ity in America (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001); rican Americans and the disabled the Invention of Homosexuality Jaime Skerski, “From Prime-Time to Day Time: The Domestication Queering the Color Line: Race and NC: Duke University Press, 2000); of Ellen DeGeneres,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies in American Culture (Durham, Signs of Queerness and Dis 4, no.4 (December 2007): 363-38 1; Richard Goldstein, Homocons: Robert McRuer, Crip Theory: Cultural 2006). For critiques The Rise of the Gay Right (New York: Verso, 2003). ability (New York: New York University Press, as white see Cathy J. Co 5. For more on openly gay athletes see Eric Anderson, on queer theory and queer studies broadly and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential “Openly Gay Athletes: Contesting Hegemonic Masculinity in a Ho hen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 3 mophobic Environment,” Gender and Society 16, no. 6 (December of Queer Politics?,” GLQ: A David Eng, Judith Halberstam, and José Esteban 2002): 860-877. (1997): 437465; Springl faIl, 2016 Pan-Japan, Vol. 12, Nos. I & 2 118 Amy Sueyoshi Why Queer Asian American Studies? 119 MuIoz, eds., “What’s Queer About Queer Studies Now?,” special is 1983); Roger Daniels, The Japanese American Cases: The Rule ofLaw sue, Social Text 23, no. 3-4 84-85 (Fall-Winter 2005). in Thne of War (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2013); Diane 10. Robert Lee, Orientats: Asian Americans in Popular Culture Fujino, Heartbeat ofStruggle: The Revotutionarv Life of Yuri Kochiya (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999); David L. Eng, Racial ma (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005); Diane Fujino, Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America (Durham, NC: Samurai Among Panthers: Richard Aoki on Race, Resistance, and a Duke University press, 2001); Nayan Shah, Contagious Divides: Epi Paradoxical Life (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012). demnics and Race in San Francisco Chinatown (Berkeley: University 16. Harold Kameya, “Asian American LGBT Pioneers of California press, 2001); Eric Wat, The Making ofa Gay Asian Coin- Recognized,” San Fernando JACL, accessed 14 July 2014, http:// inanity: An Oral History ofPre-MDS Los Angeles (Lanham: Rowman sfvjacl .weebly.com/ 1 /post/20 1 2/07/apa-l gbt-pioneers-recog and Littlefield Publishers, 2002); Martin Manalansan, Global Divas: nized.html; “Tak Yamamoto, Pioneer Nikkei Gay Activist,” The Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora (Durham: Duke University Press, Raft Shimpo, November 19, 2012, accessed July 14, 2014, http:// 2003); Gayatri Gopinath, Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and www.rafu.com/20 12/1 1/tak-yamamoto-pioneer-nikkei-gay-activ- South Asian Public Cultures (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005); ist-dies-at-74/.
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