Monday, April 19, 2004
"Gay or Asian?", from this month's issue of Details magazine.


This has predictably provoked much indignation and commentary, some of which is fairly thoughtful, but mostly it is standard-issue PC outrage.

A good part of the fury provoked, I think, lies in the prevalent homophobia (though usually not violently or very openly expressed) that exists in Asian & Asian American communities. This claptrap from Newsweek, published a couple of years ago, is as much a caricature as the Details piece. That it was re-published, approvingly, on ModelMinority.com ("a guide to Asian American empowerment", named apparently without ironic intent), is an indication of how shallow the critical facilities tended to trawl, not just in this instance viz. Asian American advocacy, but with mass-identity advocacy in general.