Gay-Lesbian Contract Marriage in Urban China: The Negotiations of Intergenerational Relations and Public Expectations

Abstract

This paper focuses on the gay-lesbian contract marriage in urban China. It documents the lived experiences of gay men and analyses their motivations and struggles when considering a contract marriage with lalas as an alternative way to resolve the intense pressure to marry. Contract marriage is a way for gays and lalas to construct the façade of heterosexuality to release from the marriage pressure from both society and family The negotiations in the families represent the intergenerational relations in China, including the ever-closer emotional and financial interdependence among family members which shaped by one-child policy, the instabilities in the reform era, and the lack of a well-orchestrated welfare system. The negotiations in the society represent the public values towards gay men as well as a broad logic of a post-Mao middle-class good citizenship, within which filial responsibility strengthen the pressure to marry that gay men face. Practical regulations which tie the legal rights to the marriage, such as childbearing permission, also shape gay men’s motivation to conduct a contract marriage.