Community in Gay Male Experience and Moral Discourse

Solidarity, Disdain, and the Imagined Center of the Gay Imagined Community

“…Research on support for Donald Trump, for example, finds that Trump voters were not personally whipsawed by global socioeconomic changes, but they saw people "like" them affected by those changes-or at least heard about those people on Fox News (Hochschild 2018; see also Polletta and Callahan 2019). Additionally, this observation suggests that this gay imagined community may be-or at least was at the time of the interview, perhaps since respondents were asked about "the community" rather than about their personal networks-more salient than personal communities, contrasting with previous studies with opposite findings (Woolwine 2000). It is also possible that respondents may have been performing their political sensitivity to me in their recognition of non-inclusion within the gay community.…”

“…due to the use of the term "community" itself, thereby at least partially explaining the salience of a broader gay imagined community in their answers (see also Holt 2011). That important caveat notwithstanding, the salience of imagined community over personal community in respondents' conceptions of what the "gay community" is stands in contrast with previous findings suggesting the opposite (Woolwine 2000). Rather than immediately drawing upon their own experiences when asked about the gay community, respondents typically drew upon their conceptions of the gay imagined community (see also Holt 2011).…”

“…Thus, while I use "personal community" to refer to respondents' friends, family, significant others, personal networks, etc., many people do not have these examples of personal community come to mind when asked about "community" (see Holt 2011). This notwithstanding, Woolwine (2000) finds that the gay imagined community is less salient to his respondents than face-to-face gay communities. Woolwine also argues that referring to the gay imagined community, rather than to a local community or a fragment of the gay community, functioned as "a rhetorical ploy that allows an individual to criticize a particular group, or groups, within the 'community' that are supposedly harming the 'whole'" (Woolwine 2000:13).…”

“…The concept of imagined community can also be useful for understanding sexuality. Indeed, scholars have, in various ways, drawn upon the concept of imagined community when examining LGBTQ + populations (e.g., Alm and Martinsson, 2017; Hollister 1999; Hughes 2008; Jones 2007; King 2008; Ross 2012; Wong and Zhang, 2000; Woolwine 2000). Overall, however, literature on sexualities has largely not focused on gayness as a “community.” Given findings that suggest that collective gay identity may be weakening (e.g., Ghaziani 2014; Seidman 2002), it is worth considering gayness as a community as well.…”

“…Some previous studies that have examined LGBTQ + imagined communities have found that, as with the nation, imagined community can be a source of resilience and strength for those who imagine themselves to be members (e.g., Ross 2012). Others have noted that while the LGBTQ + imagined community can be politically mobilizing, it can also exclude vulnerable members of that supposed community (Alm and Martinsson 2017; Woolwine 2000). Relatedly, research has found that ambivalence about gay communities is common among gay men (Holt 2011).…”