But if Taiwan legalizes same-sex marriage...: Discourses of homophobia and nationalism in a Chinese antigay community online

Abstract

This paper examines the interplay between homophobia and nationalism by analyzing online comments on the ruling of legalizing same-sex marriage in Taiwan. Drawing on methods from critical discourse analysis, I focus on the framing of this ruling by members from a Chinese antigay community online. I show that they frame this ruling as 1) abrupt, careless and opposing-the-public political misconduct, 2) a political movement to promote ‘Westernization’ and ‘Independence’, 3) a direct path to immorality and self-destruction. I find that within these frames, they evoke nationalist discourses that represent the supporters of this ruling as the ‘Other’ who attempt to split with mainland China, thereby associating LGBTQ equality movements in China with this political threat. I argue that these nationalist discourses are used in a way that masks and produces discourses of implicit and explicit homophobia.