Coming-Out in the Intersections: Examining Relationality in How Korean Gay Men in Seattle Navigate Church, Culture and Family through a Pacific Lens

Abstract

This paper uses Pacific Research Methodologies (PRM) to explore intersectionality in how Korean gay men navigate culture, family, and religion in relation to coming-out publicly in Seattle. By framing this study within a Pacific itulagi (worldview), I construct an argument that posits that Korean gay men in Seattle—due to the Korean American community being intertwined with the Christian Church—often find their sense of ethnic identity and family relationally co-constructed by a Christian one. Informants navigated this using Narratives of Convenience (NoC), whereby they reveal their sexual identity to a family member(s) and together, build a story that projects a heteronormative image of the self to the wider Korean American community. Contextually, a NoC helps avoid friction in wider familial and community circles, permitting informants to live gay lives openly with partners in US society. A full coming-out narrative by contrast often had a detrimental effect on other informants.