The self-sexual expression of young gay men with family members and other people of community in Hanoi

Abstract

      Young gay men have suffered from stigma and discrimination by people in society, even from their family members. Therefore, their process of self-sexual expression encounters lots of difficulties despite their desire to have such an expression. Aiming at understanding of the way young gay men show self-sexual expression, a qualitative research was conducted with “snowball” sampling method and in-depth interviews of 15 gay men, aged between 18 – 25 years, who are living in Ha Noi. The results showed that young gay men have different, diverse forms of self-sexual expression. They often manifested their sexual expression at early age. However, they received no attention and support from parents. When getting older, they choose to live with a two-sided life. They also find gay friends to share emotion and get empathy. In the society, they often conceal sexual nature, while some of them very clearly show self-sexual expression and feel happy with that choice. From the above assessment, there is no doubt that intervention programs need to focus on providing more knowledge about sexual orientation for family members to have objective and scientific perspective when their gay sons show sexual orientation. Social organizations should have more actions to support the gay community.