| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 衛生福利研究所 === 99 === With the methods of oral history and the participant observation of the interviewees’ home spaces, the thesis studies four samples, who are mid-aged homosexual men between 40 to 55 years old, With the life course approach , this thesis discusses which strategies have been developed in the interviewees’s aging processes. This thesis examines the phases of aging , the relation with the original family , the emergence of the alternative family and the balance between the partnership and the original family, as the dilemmas from the family commonly trouble gay men.
The thesis records middle-aged gay men who were born in the 60s, and inspects how the macrohistory of Taiwan affects the microhistory of these middle-aged gay men’s life stages. Before their prime time, these gay men grew up in a conservative era, and were instructed with traditional family values for a long time; as they manage their careers, they are already situated in a more liberal era and experience the new values of the more open and diverse society.
The study found that under the system of straight society, the openness of the time seems to give gay men more choices. However, it is not the case. If they choose to get married with women, they give up the chance to search their true love; if they ignore their family’s opposition, choosing to organize gay family, they lose their family’s support. Nonetheless, they develop their own strategies and mode for living. They found a new way to fulfill the duty of filial piety out of the frame of heterosexual. More important, the Chinese culture used to deter gay partner to enter the family of origin now become the propulsion. Therefore, this is the passage how gay partner merge into the family of origin.
Eventually, while aging these middle-aged gay men not only face the withering of their body, but also the generation gap among gay groups and the discrimination from mainstream homosexual culture. The thesis also introduces the viewpoint of critique to subvert the confinement that in the gay culture body become the indicator to separate the mainstream and the margin. Because of the old parents need to be taken care of and the nursing policy has yet to be publicized, the single middle-aged gay men become the main caretaker of their parents, becoming the person sacrificed under the nursing policy.
The thesis is to criticize the welfare policy nowadays in Taiwan, especially to investigate the involvement and balance between the gay family and the family of origin.
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