Racial and Sexual Identities of Asian American Gay Men

This paper reports results of two studies about the racial and sexual identities of Asian American gay men. In the first study, 32 Asian American gay men completed measures assessing racial and sexual identity attitudes. Results suggested that Assimilationists had the most negative sexual identity attitudes, followed by Marginalists and Separationists, with Integrationists having the most positive sexual identity attitudes. Study 2 was a qualitative study based on interviews with 10 of the participants in Study 1. Twenty-nine themes were identified and grouped under five domains (personal background, coming out, being Asian in the U.S., being gay in the U.S., and multiple identities). Most themes were related to the parallel and interactive processes between participants' racial and sexual identity development. Practical and research implications are discussed. (C) 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.