Chan

TABLE 1

Results of Questionnaire

1. Participation in social or political events in the following communities:

Asian-American only

Lesbian/gay only

Both lesbian/gay and Asian-American

2. In which community do you feel more comfortable?

Lesbian/gay

Asian-American

Neither or both

20 10 5

3. What do you consider to be your identity?

Asian-American lesbian woman or gay man 20 Lesbian or gay Asian-American

Neither or both

4. Disclosure of lesbian/gay identity to family:

Yes No

27 8

Disclosure of lesbian/gay identity to parents: Yes No

9 26

Disclosure of lesbian/gay identity to friends:

Yes No

5. Easier or harder to "come out" to other Asian Americans? Easier

Harder

4 27

No difference 4

6. Feel acknowledged and accepted in lesbian/gay community?

Yes No

Unsure

30 1

7. Experienced discrimination because of being Asian?

Women Men

17 (of 19)

3 (of 16)

Experienced discrimination because of being lesbian/gay? Women

Men

5 12

Experienced more discrimination because of being both Asian and lesbian/gay? Women

Men

17 12

• "I'came out' first as a lesbian, before coming to terms with my identity as a Filipina American."

Those who felt more comfortable in the Asian-American community explained:

"I relate to myself as an Asian person first."

• "My culture and beliefs are so Asian."

• "The gay community is so White and sometimes racist. I feel more comfortable with Asians and people of color."

• "Because Asians are more easily identified, I can't always tell if someone is gay."

The respondents who refused to choose one community over another, stated "neither." One lesbian asserted, "I do not want to choose. I am a part of both communities, but the one I identify with best is the Asian-American lesbian community."

Choice of identity-terms and identification. To determine whether individuals differentiate between feeling a part of a community and acknowledging their own personal identity, respondents were asked which terms they used to identify themselves and with which part of their identity (Asian American or lesbian-gay) they more strongly identified. Results indicated that the two concepts (community identification and personal identification) are similar for the respondents.

The respondents who used the terms Asian-American lesbian or Asian-American gay man to identify themselves answered that they identified more strongly with the lesbian or gay part of their identity:

"I choose gay, because I feel that my sexual orientation transcends my Asian-American identity. I also feel that I can have a greater impact in changing attitudes in the gay population."

• "I say lesbian; I have greater numbers of friends who are lesbians than are Asian, and I feel closer to them."

• "I more strongly identify with the lesbian and gay identity because I was politicized by my lesbianism and feminism."

In contrast, the respondents who said that they identified themselves by the terms gay Asian American or lesbian Asian American and reported that they identified more strongly as Asian American made statements such as the following:

• "Iidentify as Asian American because similar backgrounds and experiences are stronger bonds for me than sexual identity."

"My Asianness, because that is what I am, first and foremost."

"Asian American, because I can't deal with the Whitedominated lesbian and gay scene.. I guess I'm more race conscious than sexual-orientation conscious."

This question was designed to force the respondent to choose one aspect of identity over another, but seven respondents refused to choose. They reflect the reality that most Asian lesbians and gay men feel most complete when they can be accepted as being both lesbian-gay and Asian American, as the following comments indicate:

"I identify as being both. I cannot separate the two parts of who I am."

• "While the Asian-American community supports my Asian identity, the gay community only supports my being a gay man; as a result I find it difficult to identify with either."

"The only identification I can feel comfortable with is one which acknowledges both my lesbian and my Asian-American identities."

These results suggest that, when a choice of identification is required, more respondents identified themselves as lesbian or gay than as Asian American but that others refused to choose because it would mean denying an important part of their identity. It is likely that each person determines for herself or himself, depending upon the stage of identity development she or he is in, whether it is more comfortable to be Asian among lesbians and gay men or lesbian-gay around Asians or whether both are intolerable and she or he must be acknowledged as both Asian and as lesbian or gay by everyone. Because identity development is a fluid, ever-changing process, an individual may choose to identify and ally more closely with being lesbian or gay or Asian American at different times depending on need and situational factors.

Disclosure of lesbian or gay identity. Another factor examined was whether or not respondents had disclosed their lesbian or gay identity to their families. Results indicated that most respondents have "come out" to someone in their family. A sibling, usually a sister, was overwhelmingly the first person in the

JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1989 VOL. 68

Identity Development Among Asian-American Lesbians and Gay Men

family to whom this group had "come out." Although 77% (27) have "come out" to a family member, however, only nine respondents (26% of the entire sample) have "come out" to their parents. When one takes into account that 6.2 is the mean number of years this group has been "out," the percentage of respondents who have "come out" to their parents seems low. In addition, almost all respondents reported that they were "out" to most of their friends. It seems then that there are specific cultural values defining the traditional roles, which help to explain the reluctance of Asian-American lesbians and gay men to "come out" to their parents and families.

Asian cultural factors. In additional to traditional family expectations, overt acknowledgment of homosexuality may be even more restricted by Asian-American cultural norms than it is in mainstream American society. When respondents were asked to describe the Asian-American perception of lesbian and gay Asian Americans, more than half responded that there was a denial of the existence of Asian-American lesbians and gay men. This supports the idea that homosexuality is commonly perceived by ethnic minority groups as a "White, Western phenomenon." These results are similar to those noted by Espin (1987), who found that Latina lesbians were reluctant to be "out" in the Latino community, and noted, "Because of the importance placed upon family and community by most Hispanics, the threat of possible rejection and stigmatization by the Latin community becomes more of a psychological burden for the Hispanic lesbian... rejection from mainstream society does not carry the same weight" (p. 40).

Assuming a similar importance of family and community relationships in Asian cultures, it is likely that Asian-American lesbians and gay men have not "come out" to their parents because of the overwhelming fear of rejection and stigmatization. As one respondent reported, "I wish I could tell my parents-they are the only ones who do not know about my gay identity, but I am sure that they would reject me. There is no frame of reference to understand homosexuality in AsianAmerican culture."

In addition, it seems that some Asian-American lesbians and gay men choose to remain closeted not only among their families but also in the Asian-American community as well. To measure this, I used the question, "Do you find it easier or harder to 'come out' to other Asian Americans?" Those respondents who thought it was harder commented that this was so because homosexuality is such a taboo in Asian cultures and that they felt neither acknowledged nor accepted by other Asian Americans. In contrast, the small number who thought "coming out" to Asian Americans was easier indicated that they felt this way because they felt other Asian Americans would understand what being part of a minority group was like and would feel sympathetic. As might be expected, these four respondents identified more strongly with being Asian American than with being lesbian or gay.

Perceptions of lesbian or gay Asian Americans by others. Given the difficulty associated with "coming out" to other Asian Americans by the majority of respondents, it is likely that lesbian and gay Asian Americans seek out other communities in which their gayness would be more accepted than within their families or ethnic communities. But results also indicated a perception by respondents that the lesbian and gay community does not acknowledge their existence either. A large majority of the respondents reported that they felt stereotyped or unacknowledged by the lesbian and gay community. As one respon-

dent reported, "It is a problem to find my support only within the lesbian community, because I feel that I am either seen as 'exotic' and stereotyped, or unaccepted because I am Asian and not like the majority of White lesbians." Again, these results suggest that Asian-American lesbians and gay men, like other ethnic minority lesbians and gay men, find themselves in the position of not feeling totally comfortable in either community, because part of their identity is not being acknowledged. Results of this study suggest that Asian-American lesbians and gay men find their support and affiliation with the AsianAmerican or lesbian-gay communities (or both) depending on which aspect of their identities they are focusing on as well as which situational factors are involved.

Discrimination because of race or sexual orientation. Another factor examined in this study was whether or not respondents had been discriminated against because of their race, their sexual orientation, or both. These questions were the only ones in which gender was found to be a differentiating factor. The majority of men reported that they felt more frequently discriminated against because they were gay than because they were Asian. In contrast, the majority of women felt that they had experienced more discrimination because they were Asian than because they were lesbians. Both lesbians and gay men felt that they experienced more discrimination overall because of being both Asian and lesbian or gay, what Wooden et al. (1983) termed a double minority status.

These results may be explained in two ways: First, by the theory that gay men and lesbians, regardless of race, may experience different kinds of discrimination. The gay men in this study may have reported greater discrimination for their sexual orientation than for their Asianness because male homosexuality is less accepted than is lesbianism by society. The fact that these gay men are also Asian in race may be less important than their sexual orientation in experiencing discrimination.

The reverse may be true for Asian lesbians, however. Gender discrimination may play a larger role than sexual orientation. The "passive but exotic" sexual stereotypes of Asian women may be so dominant that all Asian women, regardless of sexual orientation, feel discriminated against because of their race and sex. Moreover, the stereotype may be so strong that the possibility that an Asian woman could be a lesbian may not even enter into the picture. As a result, lesbian Asian Americans perceive greater discrimination because of being Asian women than because of their sexual orientation. Like their Asian gay male counterparts, however, the women in this study did report that they have experienced greater discrimination overall because of their double minority status as both Asian and lesbian and, perhaps, triple minority status as Asian, lesbian, and a woman.

CONCLUSION

The results of this exploratory study indicate that the selfidentification of lesbian and gay Asian Americans is reflected in several factors: choice of community identification, choice of terms (Asian-American lesbian or gay man versus lesbian or gay Asian American), situational factors such as whether they had disclosed their lesbian or gay identity to their families and the Asian-American community, and their own perceptions of how they are perceived by the lesbian-gay community. Results also indicate that the majority of respondents identified more strongly with their lesbian or gay identity than with their

JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1989 VOL. 68