Interview Anonymous

By Kristy Thornton

The following is the result of compiled and quoted surveys from a small sampling of gay people in Taichung.  (Thanks again for your participation!)
           
Q: How long have you been in Taiwan?

Participants answered between four and seven years.

Q: How long have you been an active homosexual? 

Responses varied between three and twenty years. 

♀ “What do you mean by ‘active’?  Does that mean ‘sexually active’? You don’t have to be sexually active to be gay.  (I think ‘gay’ is a better term to use than ‘homosexual’.  I have known that I was gay since I was 11 years old.”

♀ “I have been an active homosexual since the moment I was born… but assuming that you meant, ‘How long have you been sexually active with members of the same-sex?’, the answer is, ‘Since I was 21 years old.’  But if you mean, ‘How long have I been an open homosexual?’, the answer is, ‘Since I was 19 years old.’”

♂ “I was active for about 13 years, but I’ve been inactive since arriving in Taiwan.”

♂ “I realized I was gay at a very young age. I came out to a close friend for the first time when I was 15 years old.”

Q: Do you consider your sexual preference to be a particularly defining characteristic, i.e., do you introduce yourself as a homosexual?

♀ “No, I don’t.    It usually comes up after a while, as would anyone’s personal life, but it is not something I make a special point of mentioning.”

♀ “No.  Straight people don’t introduce themselves as straight, so why should I introduce myself as gay?”

♀ “Yes. Do I introduce myself as a homosexual? No. I live my life as anyone would, and I talk about my life as anyone would. No one has ever said to me (outside of a gay venue), ‘I’m a heterosexual.’  But they say it in many ways that they don’t realize, like, ‘My boyfriend and I…’ or, ‘He’s totally my type.’  I don’t have to come out and say, ‘I’m a lesbian.’  They should know I am a lesbian, through listening to me talk about my life, as anyone would.  I say things like, ‘My girlfriend and I….’, or, ‘She’s my type.’  People hear what they want to hear.  So, is being a lesbian a defining characteristic of who I am?  No more or less than I imagine it would be for heterosexuals.  The big difference is that I live my life with an awareness that I am different, and most heterosexuals don’t have to think about it at all.  What really irritates me is when people say it doesn’t bother me that you’re gay, but just don’t rub it in my face.  Heterosexuality has been rubbed in my face since the day I was born. From the time I was a child, people have asked me, ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’  When I was 5, I replied by saying, ‘Yucky,’ and now that I am 25, I reply by saying, ‘Yucky.’  I see heterosexuals on TV, and at the bus stop. I see heterosexuals fondle each other in bars, and flirt during everyday conversation. I listen to straight music on a daily basis. People generally don’t think about these things as heterosexual, they just think about them as normal.”

♂ “It depends on who is interacting with me.  I would not walk into a bank and give my name and my sexual leaning.  Nor would I tell Joe Soap who I meet on the street, or someone I expect to know for only a short time.  If it appears as though I will be spending a lot of time with someone, I feel it imperative to offer that information.  Certainly, it is essential that a prospective roommate know as soon as possible, since such an interaction is necessarily very close.”

♂ “I don’t introduce myself as a homosexual or define myself by my sexuality but I do think others do. I understand that some homosexuals deal with their sexual identity by expressing it to others. I’ve never had to struggle with my own sexual orientation, so I’ve never had a need hold it out in others faces. I do believe that in order for society to understand what doesn’t fit into a social norm, they must slap a label on it in order to understand it. To me society considers my sexuality a defining characteristic.”

Q: Are you more or less promiscuous since you’ve been in Taiwan?

♀ “I have never been promiscuous.”

♂ “I gave up promiscuity 8 years ago, and I haven’t looked back.  I do, however, respect the right of others to be that way.”

♂ “More promiscuous. I’m far away from home and it’s time to let loose.”

♀ “Are you assuming that I am promiscuous? Tsk tsk. I am not promiscuous in Taiwan, nor was I promiscuous at home. The word “Promiscuous” aside, between language and cultural barriers, and of course, the difficulty in simply meeting another lesbian, I would say that I would be less likely to develop a relationship with someone in Taiwan.”

Q. Do you find yourself acting with more or less inhibitions here?  Has Taiwan made you more or less open?

♀ “I am as open as I was before.”

♀ “I am open regardless of where I am. I meet ignorance with education regardless of the country I am in.”

♂ “This is a two-sided question.  One has to distinguish between locals and foreigners.  I have always been very open with westerners, but with the Taiwanese, I am less willing to spill the beans, and I had to adjust to that when I first got here.  Even if I am certain that my colleagues know, it is not something I will discuss with them.”

♂ “Less open. I’ve found myself in a conservative society and I don’t want to step on any toes so to speak.”

Q. Have you had any experiences unique to Taiwan that you’d share?

♀ “…I have found both the foreign and Taiwanese women that I have met to be friendly and welcoming.”

♂ “This one time I found myself at a KTV with some of my straight Taiwanese friends. They introduced me to their friend Long. After a few drinks I finally leaned over and asked Long if that was his real name? Not realizing where the question was going(,). (h)He grabbed my hand and held it to his crotch. Sure enough, it was his name sake.”

Continued...