Legal recognition of same-sex partnerships: A comparative study of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan

Legal recognition of same-sex partnerships and marriages has been at the forefront of media attention in East Asian societies. For our comparative study, we carried out qualitative in-depth interviews with 31 gay men and lesbians to investigate the nuanced understanding of marriage, family and sexua...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Sociological review (Keele) 2020-01, Vol.68 (1), p.192-208
Main Authors: Tang, Denise Tse-Shang, Khor, Diana, Chen, Yi-Chien
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acknowledgment
Assimilation
Citizenship
Comparative analysis
Comparative studies
Equality
Families & family life
Heterosexuality
Homosexuality
Kinship
Lesbianism
Men
Partnerships
Same sex marriage
Social relations
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Summary:Legal recognition of same-sex partnerships and marriages has been at the forefront of media attention in East Asian societies. For our comparative study, we carried out qualitative in-depth interviews with 31 gay men and lesbians to investigate the nuanced understanding of marriage, family and sexual citizenship within the context of debates on marriage equality across Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. Expanding on the theoretical concepts in Chen’s ‘Asia as method’, Iwabuchi’s ‘inter-Asian referencing’ and Yue and Leung’s ‘queer Asia as method’, we aim to understand how the act of marriage is defined, conducted and rationalized amidst a web of social relations within each research locale. We argue that despite the variations in the structure and practice of kin relations, same-sex unions cannot be detached from the kinship institution in the three research sites. Our study points to a different perspective on same-sex marriage that goes beyond the binary of assimilation to/dismantling of the heterosexual marriage institution by attending to the structural and symbolic significance of the family and community.
ISSN:0038-0261
1467-954X
DOI:10.1177/0038026119858222